Noel León clinches pole after unique Campos strategy in Formula 2 Austria qualifying
- Vyas Ponnuri
- 3 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Noel León became the first Mexican to score pole position for Formula 2's Austria weekend by a margin of 0.129 seconds, ahead of Alex Dunne, while teammate Nikola Tsolov, who rounded out the top three.
It was a unique strategy call to go out earlier around the Red Bull Ring for León that brought him the rewards. Championship contenders Gabriele Minì and Rafa Câmara rounded out the top five. ART's Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak was sixth, ahead of Ollie Goethe and Rafael Villagómez in seventh and eighth, while the likes of John Bennett and Sebastián Montoya round out the top 10 respectively.
Montoya will start on reverse grid pole for the Saturday sprint race. A close session, and here's how everything unfolded around the Red Bull Ring.
AS IT UNFOLDED - Formula 2 Qualifying in Austria
Ahead of qualifying around the speedy Red Bull Ring circuit, drivers had their customary 45-minute free practice session to finetune setups before unleashing peak performance. MP Motorsport's Ollie Goethe topped an interrupted Free Practice session, ahead of Nikola Tsolov and Alex Dunne.
Heading into the 30-minute qualifying session, it was PREMA's Mari Boya who headed out on to the circuit, but all eyes would once again be on Invicta's Rafa Câmara, who has taken the last two poles so far in Monaco and Barcelona.
After the first round of laps, it was a Campos 1-2, with Noel León leading ahead of Tsolov. It was an early setback for Câmara, who found himself having to abandon his opening lap after encountering traffic in the second sector.
Despite sitting seventh in the order, Dunne would have a huge lock up into Turn 1, as he was forced to abort that lap. Further lap times would come from the drivers though, with a shorter circuit allowing drivers to get back into rhythm for another flying lap.
While León would improve his benchmark by over a tenth and a half, Câmara would then eclipse the Mexican with his latest lap of the session, a 1:16.052 that lifted him up from last to first in the order.
Several drivers would immediately find more lap time on the same set of tyres, as Gabriele Minì and Ollie Goethe lifted themselves up into the top 10, while VAR's Rafael Villagómez put himself a solid fifth. Trident's John Bennett continued to find pace around a familiar venue, placing seventh after the first round of laps.
Meanwhile, drivers would be finding the gravel situated just outside the track, with DAMS' Dino Beganovic kicking up the dirt at Turns 7 and 8, while Hitech's Colton Herta slithered across the gravel at the fast Turn 9. He would not complete the lap, sitting down in 15th as the team looked for a strong uptick in qualifying form.
At the halfway mark of the session, it was a familiar face up top of the leaderboard, with Câmara up at the top, ahead of the Campos duo of León and Tsolov. Among the biggest surprises was Dunne, who sat 10th in the order as he looked for a sixth consecutive top four qualifying result in 2026.
León would go out onto the track much earlier than the rest, on his second set of tyres. It would be no surprise as he set the timesheets alight, and eventually stopped the clock a full half a second clear atop the standings. A 1:15.544 looked daunting with 10 minutes to go, however, drivers would definitely fancy closing that margin on new tyres and less fuel in the car.
The final 10 minutes of the session would once again prove to be exciting, as drivers rallied to set the quickest lap and place themselves in the top 10 for a good result.
Every driver barring León was out onto the track with six minutes left in the session, as the Campos man watched on to see if his time would be eclipsed.
However, much to the shock, none of the drivers would be able to surpass the 1:15.544, with Dunne in second coming just over a tenth of a second shy of this time. Câmara would only manage fifth.
Despite all they could, there were early celebrations down at Campos, who were celebrating a possible pole position. It would pan out to be, as the cheers rung down at his garage with the seconds ticking down.
Jubilation for Campos, and here's how the session panned out!
Classification - F2 qualifying in Austria
Noel León (Campos Racing)
Alex Dunne (Rodin Motorsport)
Nikola Tsolov (Campos Racing)
Gabriele Minì (MP Motorsport)
Rafa Câmara (Invicta Racing)
Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak (ART Grand Prix)
Ollie Goethe (MP Motorsport)
Rafael Villagómez (Van Amersfoort Racing)
John Bennett (Trident)
Sebastián Montoya (PREMA Racing)
Joshua Dürksen (Invicta Racing)
Kush Maini (ART Grand Prix)
Roman Bilinski (DAMS)
Dino Beganovic (DAMS)
Mari Boya (PREMA Racing)
Laurens van Hoepen (Trident)
Ritomo Miyata (Hitech TGR)
Emerson Fittipaldi Jr (AIX Racing)
Cian Shields (AIX Racing)
Colton Herta (Hitech TGR)
Martinius Stenshorne (Rodin Motorsport)
Nicolás Varrone (Van Amersfoort Racing)
