The winners and losers from F2’s dramatic weekend in Monza
- Vyas Ponnuri
- 1 hour ago
- 10 min read
Invicta Racing’s Joshua Dürksen became the second driver to sweep a Formula 2 weekend in 2026, winning both races in Monza. However, several figures on the grid experienced stellar weekends, as the championship picture shifted dramatically on F2’s return after the summer break. DIVEBOMB looks back at the winners and losers from F2's Monza weekend.
Winner: Rafael Câmara
Having started from pole for the fifth time in 2026, Invicta’s Rafael Câmara may have dreamt of starting the second half of the F2 season on the front foot.
Yet, it wouldn’t be, as he went deep into the first chicane on the opening lap on Sunday, ceding position to teammate Joshua Dürksen, and was eventually unable to overtake his all-conquering teammate in the 30-lap Feature Race.
Despite missing out on seven more points to add to his tally, Câmara scored 18 valuable points, cutting the gap at the head of the championship to Campos’ Nikola Tsolov to just 11 points, and moving up into second in the standings.
Câmara holds a strong desire to follow along Invicta’s trend in the last two seasons, of a Trident F3 champion going on to triumph in F2 for the team in yellow, and Monza may just have given his season a big fillip in his quest for glory.
“We just need to keep doing our job,” Câmara expressed, speaking on his runner-up result after the Feature Race. “We have always been there and have always been consistent.”
It was a missed opportunity to score in the sprint, with the reigning F3 champion tipped around by Nico Varrone at Turn 2, with Câmara eventually unable to get going once again and retiring from the race itself.
Even still, this proved to be a minor blip in the weekend, perhaps the only blot in Invicta’s Monza notebook.
With four rounds to go in the season, the title fight is tantalisingly poised, set to go right down to the final event, with 11 points separating the Brazilian from a championship lead, and 47 points separating Campos and Invicta in the constructors’ standings.
Loser: Gabriele Minì
MP Motorsport’s Gabriele Minì came into Monza in high spirits, banking on the advantage of racing on home turf and familiar avenues. He remained the form driver, capable of closing down Tsolov’s 20-point championship lead as the F2 grid entered Monza after the summer break.
A difficult qualifying left him down in 11th, as he just missed out on reverse grid pole by 33 milliseconds. Yet, this wouldn’t amount to anything, with Minì being one of seven drivers to receive post-qualifying penalties for the pair of races on home turf.
Climbing up from further down on the grid proved a hard ask, despite overtaking being possible around the Temple of Speed. As for Minì, he wasn’t able to get into the points in either race, finishing 10th in the sprint before coming home 11th in a multi-car scrap for the points.
This result represented a massive opportunity missed for the MP Motorsport driver to close down the gap ahead, with Tsolov finishing off the podium in either race. However, a first non-scoring weekend of the season leaves the Italian driver chasing further ground, as he sits 30 points away from the lead of the standings.
With four rounds left in the race for the F2 title, every weekend becomes all the more crucial for Minì in his quest for the championship he has been chasing all season.
Winner: Joshua Dürksen
Was there a happier driver at Monza this weekend?
Every driver dreams of winning a race at the Temple of Speed. Few have done it once in their career. However, Dürksen, who thoroughly enjoys this configuration, may have exceeded even his own expectations.
Qualifying a career-best second, the Paraguayan driver helped Invicta Racing lock out the front row. His sprint drive underlined just how strong the yellow Invicta looked around Monza, and Dürksen displayed supreme confidence to pull off clinical overtakes en route to victory.
Starting from the front row for the Feature Race on Sunday, Dürksen capitalised on teammate Câmara’s mistake on the opening lap to grab the lead, before the duo swapped positions in the coming laps.
Pitting two laps before his teammate helped Dürksen eventually reclaim the lead, one he would stretch out to over two seconds. Yet, once Câmara brought his tyres into temperature, the gap would once again reduce to under a second.
With both drivers cleared to race until the end, the Brazilian tried his best to chase victory, but Dürksen ensured he maintained the gap enough to secure victory and a clean sweep for the race weekend.
Beneath the fervent celebrations and the iconic display of the Paraguayan flag on the podium, Dürksen also had to deal with a minor setback on the cool-down lap; his Invicta went up in smoke on the exit of Curva Grande. He would eventually have to return to the pits in the medical car, before a humorous moment saw him mimicking pulling into the P1 slot alongside the other podium finishers.
Dürksen, though, generated several statistics with his successful Monza weekend; he became the second driver to take both wins on the same weekend in 2026. He also joined Felipe Drugovich, Ollie Bearman, Zane Maloney and Tsolov as the only drivers to do so in the modern F2 era.
It also marked the first time an Invicta driver won both races on the same weekend. Dürksen’s pair of Monza wins has also taken him up to a tally of eight F2 wins, tying the record for the most number of wins in the championship alongside Richard Verschoor, Drugovich, Nyck de Vries and Artem Markelov.
The win has catapulted the Invicta man up into eighth in the standings, as he looks to close out the season with his best ever finishing position in the championship.
Loser: ART Grand Prix
ART Grand Prix emerged as one of the standout performers in the first half of the season, leaving Hungary with second and fifth on the road and emerging as one of the prime contenders for the second half of the season.
For the French team, Monza brought a forgettable weekend. A terrible qualifying left Kush Maini down in 21st, as he was unable to finish his final lap due to a lock-up in Turn 1 and oversteer off the Ascari chicane, while Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak ended Friday seventh on the road.
Maini was later penalised by the stewards for his involvement in the late chaos in qualifying, dropping to a last-place start on the grid.
The ART cars proved largely uncompetitive in race trim over the course of the race weekend, struggling on their tyres and dropping back in the later stages of the races. Despite starting fourth and being in contention for a podium in the sprint, Inthraphuvasak lost several positions in the final two laps, finishing 19th and only ahead of Maini.
The Thai driver came home eighth in the Feature Race; however, he too dropped ground after running in the top five during the race. As for Maini, he was the last driver to make a pit stop off the super soft tyres, just one lap before the safety car was deployed.
He would cross the line 18th, marking his most difficult weekend of the season so far, and will be aiming for a quick right of reply as the F2 grid makes its way to Madrid for the upcoming round.
Winner: John Bennett
Trident have shown an excellent turn of pace, with John Bennett bringing them victory earlier in the season in Austria.
The Briton once again started from the front of the field once again on Saturday, aiming to replicate his drive from earlier in the season. A steady start helped him fend off the chasing Goethe and Ritomo Miyata, and the resultant battle for second left Bennett with a gap of over two seconds in the lead.
The Trident man’s joy would be short-lived with the safety car on Lap 5 erasing his lead, and he would lose the lead he held for nine laps to a fast-charging Dürksen. Bennett’s best chances remained towards the end of the race, though, and he remained within striking distance of the Invicta ahead.
Despite a late-race safety car, Bennett couldn’t repeat his last-lap pass from Austria’s sprint, eventually coming home in second, scoring another podium. However, he remained optimistic after the sprint, looking ahead to a good result in Sunday’s Feature Race.
“Starting P10 tomorrow, we'll definitely be targeting strong points. Anything's possible, a podium or even a win,” Bennett said, referencing parallels to Gabriel Bortoleto’s last-to-first drive in 2024.
He would drive a strong race on Sunday, with Trident effecting a strong pit stop that elevated him ahead of several contenders. An unsuccessful battle with Campos’ Noel León eventually cost him a podium spot, but successful overtakes on Inthraphuvasak and Alex Dunne earned him fourth, his best result in a F2 Feature Race.
A best-ever haul of 20 points elevated him to 13th in the standings, with Bennett comfortably outpacing more illustrious teammate Laurens van Hoepen over the course of the Monza weekend.
Loser: DAMS
Several teams endured difficult weekends, but none worse than the DAMS outfit. Neither Dino Beganovic nor Roman Bilinski looked on course to make any inroads after a difficult qualifying performance on Friday.
The pace in practice did not translate into a big weekend for Bilinski, who started 12th on the grid, while Beganovic was one of the seven to receive post-race penalties. This resulted in a starting position of 19th for both races, leaving plenty of work to do.
Bilinski dropped down the order in the sprint before a spin coming out of the Ascari chicane saw him retire from the race, while Beganovic came home 12th at the flag.
The following day’s Feature Race saw Bilinski struggle to maintain position, a slow puncture resulting in an extra pit stop, as he finished last of the classified finishers. Beganovic ascended to 12th on the road, but it was in vain.
It was a stark contrast to the events earlier in the day for the F3 drivers, which saw Nicola Lacorte bring the team’s first Feature Race win.
DAMS have now dropped to seventh in the constructors’ standings behind Trident, and will be looking to bounce back in Madrid the following weekend.
Winner: Ritomo Miyata
Hitech and Ritomo Miyata started the season on a strong note, with Miyata scoring consistent points finishes and delivering high hopes of a big result in the offing.
However, the Japanese driver had only scored four points since Monaco, with Hitech struggling to hold ground in the races and facing higher tyre wear. Yet, a ray of hope followed in Monza, when Miyata took the team up to eighth in qualifying.
Penalties for the Campos cars ahead lifted him to sixth, delivering hopes of a first podium appearance for the team in silver.
Starting third for the sprint, Miyata’s slow getaway cost him several positions in the opening laps, a re-run of his Silverstone sprint which saw him fall down the order as the Hitech proved difficult on its tyres.
He eventually came home ninth in Monza, but the bigger rewards came during the Sunday Feature Race. Starting eighth, Miyata utilised the strong straight-line speed to make his way past Martinius Stenshorne and Inthraphuvasak, before a final pass on Dunne earned a well-rewarded fifth. This marked his best result since Monaco, and a joint-best result all season.
Loser: Colton Herta
If one Hitech looked strong during the race weekend, struggle would be an understatement for the other. Colton Herta was eagerly looking ahead to the race weekend, one that had him take part in a third FP1 session of the year for Cadillac’s Formula One outfit.
Yet, it unravelled in the worst way possible, as the crash at the second Lesmo curtailed F2’s sole 45-minute practice session, leaving yet more scrutiny over his desires to graduate to F1 in the future.
His FP1 appearance left little to cheer about, too, with Herta stopping to the side of the road after reporting a hydraulic issue on the Cadillac.
Qualifying later in the day left him marooned in 20th, as the American driver faced a long weekend ahead in his quest to score points and join Miyata up ahead.
While Herta eventually finished 15th in the sprint, he would experience yet more misfortune in Sunday’s Feature Race. Early contact with Sebastián Montoya forced him wide at the Ascari chicanes, necessitating an early pit stop for a front wing change.
A spin at the Parabolica corner later ended his race, with a disappointed Herta left to reflect on a torrid weekend.
Winner: Ollie Goethe
F2 hasn’t been as kind to MP Motorsport’s Ollie Goethe in his one-and-a-half seasons. Despite scoring a maiden podium in Austria, points finishes have come few and far between for the German driver.
Qualifying up in ninth delivered hope for Goethe, though, as he netted a front-row start for the sprint on Saturday. He was in the thick of the action, though, scrapping hard for a podium position.
“I was a little bit impatient,” Goethe admitted, speaking to DIVEBOMB after the sprint. “I think I used a bit more of my tyres as well,” he reflected, looking back at the podium battles with Stenshorne and Inthraphuvasak.
A second podium of the season brought yet more to cheer for Goethe, who expressed that the first half of the season “fully went how we expected and what we aimed for.”
Starting ninth for the Feature Race, Goethe found himself in the midst of a fierce multi-car battle involving VAR’s Nico Varrone, for the final point on offer. This battle also included teammate Minì.
Goethe eventually came home 10th, before being elevated to ninth after Stenshorne’s post-race penalty.
Loser: Rodin Motorsport
In some ways, Monza represents a missed opportunity for Rodin Motorsport. The outlook remained optimistic when Dunne qualified in the top three for the ninth time this season, while Stenshorne was elevated to fourth in the classifications after penalties.
They would eventually start fifth and sixth for Saturday's sprint, with Stenshorne briefly finding himself in the battle for a podium. Both drivers eventually finished sixth and seventh in the sprint, marking a welcome return to the points after a difficult Hungary weekend.
But the Rodin outfit will undoubtedly be gutted by the outcome of the Feature Race. A poor start for both meant they lost positions to the chasing Inthraphuvasak and León.
Pitting early, though, helped Dunne return to the top three, and the safety car restart presented an opportunity for Dunne as he found himself alongside Câmara for second.
As the duo rounded Curva Grande to the second chicane, Dunne would experience a lock-up, taking to the run-off and losing third to León’s Campos. He wouldn’t remain in contention for a podium, eventually losing two places to come home sixth.
Stenshorne, on the other hand, made contact with Varrone on the exit of the Roggia chicane, as he attempted to hold on to ninth. The resulting contact broke his front wing endplate, leading to a 10-second time penalty that cost him a ninth-place finish.
Comments