Noel Leon takes maiden F2 victory in Montréal

Written by Liam Ploetner

Credit: Formula 2

On pole for the Sprint was Gabriele Minì ahead of Rafael Villagómez, Noel León, John Bennett and Joshua Dürksen.

Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak withdrew from the weekend after a major crash in qualifying, while Alex Dunne and Rafael Câmara both had three-place grid penalties due to impeding in qualifying, putting them in 11th and 12th for the Sprint Race.

Minì got away well off the start, while Villagómez lost a place to León. Dürksen went down the inside of Villagómez and made contact with Leon’s rear, moving him up to second.

Martinius Stenshorne passed Tsolov to move into sixth, and Laurens van Hoepen ran wide at the turn nine chicane, dropping him down to 11th.

Minì led Dürksen, Leon, Villagómez, Bennett, Stenshorne, Nicolas Varrone, Tsolov, Emerson Fittipaldi Jr and Dunne at the end of lap one. Alpine junior Minì had a significant lead over Dürksen.

Dürksen and León battled for second, with Dürksen going off at the final chicane, allowing León through into second for Campos. Dunne and Varrone were now under investigation as well for being out of position at the Safety Car line.

After three laps, Minì was two seconds ahead of León, who had the entire top ten and van Hoepen in a DRS train behind him. At the end of the third lap, Sebastián Montoya spun at the Wall of Champions, but avoided major damage.

On lap four, the pack briefly closed on Minì, with Dürksen now at the head of it after passing Leon on the back straight.

The top 11 cars had pulled away from the rest of the pack, owing to a battle for 12th which created a second DRS train. 

Tsolov passed Varrone for seventh on lap six, which cost the duo, Fittipaldi, Dunne and van Hoepen time to the drivers ahead. Now they were outside of a second, as Varrone and Tsolov continued to swap places.

Varrone was given a stop-and-go penalty for being out of position at the Safety Car line, coming down pit road on lap nine due to the penalty.

Fittipaldi and Varrone’s battle for eighth lost two and a half seconds to Tsolov ahead, who by now was back in the battle for second. 

León, who was now remaining in second, pulled clear.

Late braking from Stenshorne and Tsolov spun Bennett at the turn 10 hairpin, which brought out the Safety Car.

At the time of the Safety Car coming out on lap 11, the top 10 was Minì, León, Dürksen, Villagómez, Stenshorne, Tsolov, an under-investigation Dunne, Fittipaldi, van Hoepen and Roman Bilinski.

At the end of lap 14, the Safety Car came into the pits, and green flag racing resumed.

Minì had a poor restart, with León attempting a move around the outside into turn one, with the former remaining ahead of the latter.

Dunne also had a poor restart, dropping nine tenths back from Tsolov.

Dürksen was given a five second time penalty for the lap one incident, and lost third to Villagómez in what was a disappointing lap 15 for him. Dürksen and Stenshorne both went off at the last chicane, resulting in Dürksen giving the place back to Villagómez, losing out to Stenshorne in the process.

The scrapping for third effectively enabled Minì and León to clear the pack behind, and gave the rest of the field the chance to catch up to the battle for third.

Tsolov went down the inside of Dürksen into the hairpin for fifth, while Minì and León continued to duel for the race lead.

Dürksen spun at the hairpin after Dunne hit him, and León took the lead on lap 18 at the Wall of Champions. Another Safety Car came out due to Dürksen’s spin.

Kush Maini and Cian Shields both went for a gamble, going onto the supersofts with nine laps to go.

At the end of lap 21, the race resumed with Campos’ León leading MP’s Minì, VAR’s Villagómez, Rodin’s Stenshorne, Campos’ Tsolov, Rodin’s Dunne, AIX’s Fittipaldi and Trident’s van Hoepen in the points, with Dunne now under investigation for the collision with Dürksen, which he was given a ten second time penalty for.

Minì once again had a poor restart, but remained second but a second behind after one sector.

Dunne now needed to march on to try and score points due to the time penalty, and did so by moving ahead of Tsolov for fifth. Tsolov was also penalised, which meant that DAMS duo Bilinski and Dino Beganovic, who were ninth and tenth, would be on course for points.

Mexico had two drivers on the podium as it stood, in what was effectively a home race for León and Villagómez.

Dunne took the fastest lap on lap 24, while Leon pulled a 2.4 second lead with four laps to go. Villagómez and Stenshorne fought for third, but Stenshorne went off at turn one and Villagómez hit the wall at turn four, meaning Dunne was now up to third, with Stenshorne fourth, Tsolov fifth, Fittipaldi sixth, van Hoepen seventh and Beganovic eighth.

Villagómez’s teammate Varrone also had an incident at the exit of the hairpin as Shields hit Varrone after Prema duo Mari Boya and Montoya slowed down due to the DRS activation line, and the Virtual Safety Car came out due to Villagómez’s debris. 

The VSC ended halfway through lap 27, and Stenshorne and Tsolov battled for fourth. Câmara passed Bilinski at the hairpin, and defended from the DAMS driver at the start of the final lap. As it stood, Stenshorne would be third ahead of van Hoepen, Fittipaldi, Beganovic, Câmara and Bilinski.

León took victory, making him the first Mexican driver to win in Formula 2 in the modern era. Stenshorne secured third, his first podium of 2026, while Dunne and Tsolov dropped down to 13th and 14th due to their penalties.