Winners and Losers from a championship-defining F2 weekend in Hungary
- Vyas Ponnuri
- Jul 27
- 9 min read
Formula 2 experienced a defining weekend in Hungary, with an element of quick thinking by Campos bringing them a big victory, while the lead at the head of the F2 standings was cut by a significant margin. DIVEBOMB delves into the major winners and losers from the latest weekend at the Hungaroring.
Winners: Rafa Câmara, Gabriele Minì
Invicta’s Rafa Câmara and MP Motorsport’s Gabriele Minì came into F2’s Hungarian weekend on the back of contrasting weekends in Spa. But by the time the pair of races had come to an end, they headed into the summer break on a wave of confidence.
Câmara, coming off the back of a crucial victory in Spa, looked on course for three pole positions in a row when he improved on his first flying lap in qualifying on Friday. Despite going quick through the first two sectors of the lap, the Brazilian would just be pipped at the post by ART’s Kush Maini.
Despite this minor setback, though, Câmara went about his weekend with a clear goal in mind. He would climb up two positions at the start of the sprint on Saturday, passing teammate Joshua Dürksen and Noel León to sit sixth, behind the Trident of Laurens van Hoepen.
The Turn 1 incident between Tsolov and Montoya elevated him to fourth, and despite his best tries, he wouldn’t be able to make up any more ground. This was also his best result in a Saturday sprint all season.
Despite losing position to León’s Campos in the Feature Race, the Invicta man stayed patient, even as the gap to race leader Maini grew.
Once the Mexican driver pitted, he put in a few quick laps before pitting, and the strong turn of pace put Câmara right on the tail of Maini’s ART. While there was no way past, he still came home in an excellent third on the road.
On the other hand, Minì qualified down in ninth for the race weekend, and this put him on the front row for the sprint race. Maintaining his position, the Italian shadowed long-time race leader Montoya all the way through, before making his key move on Lap 17.
This move would bring about a race win, and with Tsolov’s DNF later in the race, the MP Motorsport driver cut the gap in the standings from 27 to 16 points after the sprint.
The Feature Race would bring about a different story, though. Starting on the soft tyre, Minì would come under pressure from those making the pit stop late into the race. While he battled the charging Tsolov late on, Minì came home ninth on the road, two positions behind his closest rival.
However, both drivers now sit just two points apart in the standings, and only 20 and 22 off leader Tsolov, heading into the summer break, and will fancy closing down the gap when F2 returns to action in Monza.
Losers: Nikola Tsolov, Alex Dunne
It was an uncharacteristically off-colour weekend for both Tsolov and Dunne, who have showcased strong turn of pace for most of the season.
However, the impact would be more severe on the Irishman’s weekend, with an early suspension failure in qualifying limiting him to a lowly 17th on the grid. It put an end to his streak of scoring a top four result in Friday’s qualifying sessions in 2026.
Tsolov, meanwhile, managed to qualify seventh on the road, putting him towards the front of the field for the Saturday sprint instead. A great start would see him climb up to third, behind Minì.
As he hung back and played the long game, the Campos man attempted a late overtake into Turn 1 on Lap 20 on Montoya, with the Colombian coming off worse for the second successive sprint. With damage to his suspension, Tsolov would limp back to the pits, forced to retire from the race.
This marked his first non-scoring result since the Feature Race in Canada, and to add more pain to his weekend, a five-place grid drop for his actions sent him down to 12th on the grid for the Feature Race.
Despite this setback, the Campos man showcased just why he is the championship leader. A measured drive saw him make up early positions on the medium tyres, before Tsolov made up two further positions on Minì and Dürksen to come home in seventh.
Meanwhile, Dunne’s attempt at an ambitious strategy did not pay off, with Rodin running him deep into the race in anticipation of a safety car. However, this did not pay off, as Dunne came haring into the pit lane and locked up heavily on entry. He would eventually finish 11th, enduring his first non-scoring weekend of the year.
While Tsolov retains his lead at the top, Dunne sits a distant fourth, chasing a big second half of the season to keep his F2 championship aspirations alive.
Winner: Noel León
Campos’ Noel León had endured a difficult and forgettable weekend in Spa, a domino effect caused by a spin in qualifying. By the end of the weekend, a post-race disqualification for a unique instance summed up his weekend.
However, coming into Hungary, a track that is difficult to overtake on, there remained great optimism when the Mexican driver qualified in third. While he endured a difficult sprint, dropping out of the points due to a late post-race penalty, it was in the Feature Race that he claimed the big points.
A strong start got him up into second, and although he dropped to almost five seconds behind Maini early on, a window of opportunity opened up during his pit stop. With the stranded VAR of Rafael Villagómez at Turn 13 triggering a virtual safety car, León had already swapped his tyres, gaining massively on the rest of the field.
This would pay off after race leader Maini pitted, and by the time the Indian had made his way through the traffic, the Campos man had pulled out a gap of five seconds. Yet, the job was only half done, as the ART man began cutting into this advantage.
A five-second gap was down to less than a second with five laps to go, but firm defending from León saw the chasing duo run out of opportunities, allowing him to claim a maiden Feature Race win.
Being the first Mexican to claim a Feature Race win, León maintained his top five position in the standings, while Campos opened up a 74-point gap at the head of the constructors’ standings with their fifth Feature Race win of the season.
Loser: Martinius Stenshorne
It was a difficult weekend all around for Rodin Motorsport, but few would be more gutted than Martinius Stenshorne. Coming off a sprint podium in Spa, the omens looked strong for the Norwegian driver.
Outqualifying his more illustrious teammate for the first time since Miami, Stenshorne gained ground in the sprint on Saturday, with the penalty for León earning him the final points-paying position in eighth.
However, despite starting 10th for Sunday’s Feature Race, the Rodin man’s race came undone on the opening tour, with contact between Turns 4 and 5 resulting in a bent steering, and two further trips to the pits.
Despite his setbacks, Stenshorne still completed the race two laps down, albeit last of the classified runners, capping off a stop-start phase of the season. Rodin failed to score points in a race weekend for the first time in 2026 too.
Winner: ART Grand Prix
ART have been one of the stronger constructors on the 2026 F2 grid, with regular points finishes by Maini and the emergence of teammate Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak’s form on the European leg only boosting their fortunes into every weekend.
However, Hungary presented the best weekend in 2026 for the French team, with Maini bringing his Midas touch around the Hungaroring to secure pole, while Inthraphuvasak backed up his teammate by starting fifth for the race.
It was a strong statement performance, with ART and Invicta having both their drivers starting in the top five during the weekend. And despite Maini’s early frustrations in the sprint behind his teammate, the Indian driver would come home a strong fifth, ahead of Inthraphuvasak, bringing home more points.
In the Feature Race, though, Maini would arguably be class of the field, executing a dream opening stint and leading by a solid margin of five seconds by the halfway mark. However, he would be thwarted by the quick thinking at Campos, emerging several seconds behind León after the pit stops were completed.
Despite facing pressure from the chasing Câmara and getting through slower cars ahead, Maini closed down the gap to the Mexican ahead, although his wait for a Feature Race win still continued. Yet, finishing second brought him a third rostrum appearance of the season, with his tally of 88 points marking a best-ever scoring season in his F2 career.
As for Inthraphuvasak, starting on the medium tyre would see him caught up in a race-long battle with Dürksen, and after several tries, he would make his way past to take fifth in the race on the softer tyres.
Thanks to ART’s brilliant haul of points from the weekend, they now sit only 20 points away from Rodin in the standings, with Inthraphuvasak level on points alongside Stenshorne for ninth and 10th after their contrasting weekend.
Loser: Joshua Dürksen
The odds looked to be in Invicta’s favour when both Câmara and Dürksen qualified in the top four on Friday. However, their weekends played out in contrasting fashion.
Starting seventh for the sprint, Dürksen found himself caught up for most of the race behind the ART of Maini, and a mistake during the 28-lap race dropped him behind León’s Campos. Despite an attempt to go around the outside of Turn 2, he was forced off track.
He would be promoted to seventh after León’s penalty, but it was the Feature Race result which the Paraguayan driver would be more gutted about. Starting fourth, he would spend most of the race stuck behind the fast-starting Laurens van Hoepen, and lose out to Inthraphuvasak in a race-long battle.
Dropping away on worn medium tyres, he would slide down to eighth on the road, left to look back on what could have been this weekend if he had nailed the start.
Winner: Dino Beganovic
Coming off a return to the podium in Spa, DAMS driver Dino Beganovic flew the flag for the French outfit all weekend. Qualifying a strong eighth, he remained in the hunt for yet another rostrum appearance when he started third for the sprint on Saturday.
Despite losing position to Tsolov at the start, the Swedish driver stayed in proximity, benefitting strongly from the incident between Tsolov and Montoya to net second on the road, his best in a sprint race in 2026.
He would fit on the medium tyres for the Feature Race on Sunday, benefitting late in the race as he came home a strong sixth, ahead of the chasing Tsolov.
The result marked Beganovic’s first double points weekend since Barcelona, and he would be looking to pick up the momentum heading into the second half of the season.
Loser: Sebastián Montoya
Beganovic’s podium came at the loss of one driver’s chances to score a big result. For the third time in four races, Montoya started a sprint race at the front of the field for PREMA. Once again, he wouldn’t convert this start into a victory.
With the PREMA car struggling on its tyres around the Hungaroring’s winding corners, the Colombian was always set to face a stern test from the chasing pack if he was to convert his start into a big result.
Despite leading for more than halfway in the race, Montoya would lose position to Minì’s MP Motorsport, while another unsuccessful dive down the inside from Tsolov took Montoya wide in Turn 1, forcing him to retire from the race.
Having started ninth for the race, the PREMA man would once again struggle on his tyres, eventually coming home well down the order in 16th, capping off another difficult weekend on the road.
Winner: Laurens van Hoepen
Coming off the dramatic incident in Spa, finishing third in the sprint and fourth in the Feature Race marked a perfect reward for Laurens van Hoepen and Trident for their tireless efforts behind the scenes.
Trident have always been a team performing better in the races, and when van Hoepen qualified sixth, the team remained optimistic of an excellent result coming their way.
The Dutchman handled his start carefully before capitalising on Tsolov and Montoya’s incident to grab his third podium of the season, and return to the points for the first time since Austria.
Once again, nailing his start meant van Hoepen climbed up to fourth in the Feature Race, and ensured he came home in the same position by the chequered flag, bringing home plenty to cheer down at the Italian constructor’s garage.
With John Bennett finally returning to the points in the Feature Race, it marked a successful weekend for Trident all around, heading into the summer break.
Loser: Roman Bilinski
Having scored points every race weekend since Canada, the Hungarian weekend proved difficult for DAMS’ Roman Bilinski. He would qualify only 20th on the grid, leaving plenty to do for the pair of races.
An uneventful sprint would see him come home 18th on the road, while he would stall on the start in the Feature Race, getting going and starting at the rear of the grid.
He would eventually climb six positions from his original starting slot to finish 14th, but left the Hungarian weekend with no points to boot, into the summer break.
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