Winners and losers from an exciting Formula 2 weekend in Austria
- Vyas Ponnuri
- 7 hours ago
- 7 min read
Formula 2’s annual Austrian visit was one of firsts for several drivers, while the established quartet leading the standings put themselves towards the front of the field once again. DIVEBOMB brings you the biggest winners and losers from the championship’s weekend of racing at the Red Bull Ring.
Winners: Nikola Tsolov, Gabriele Minì
In some ways, F2’s first three weekends of racing in Europe have done enough to draw the main conclusion: Four drivers have emerged head and shoulders above the rest of the field. And the names right at the head of this field include Campos’ Nikola Tsolov and MP Motorsport’s Gabriele Minì.
It was only fitting that both drivers ended up starting right next to each other on the grid for both races, and they would be running together for most of the race weekend.
Both drivers would have contrasting runs to the top, though. An unsuccessful overtaking attempt into Turn 3 by Rafa Câmara caused a multi-car incident, sending the Bulgarian into a half-spin, although he was able to continue. A recovery to ninth on the road would follow for the Campos man, with a point then secured after Câmara’s five-second penalty for the Lap 1 impact.
In contrast, Minì ran a much steadier sprint, battling away with the Invicta man and fellow Alpine junior Alex Dunne, before settling for fifth.
The Feature Race would see both Tsolov and Minì scrap for victory along with Dunne. A slow pit stop for the former cost him track position to his rivals, as Minì emerged as the leader of this trio after the mandatory pit stops were completed.
Tsolov would eventually make his way past the pair of them, into a race lead he wouldn’t relinquish, while Minì made his way past Dunne to slot himself into second.
With their results from the weekend, it is still status quo in the standings, although both drivers now sit just two points apart, set to duel away until the end of the season.
Loser: Martinius Stenshorne
For the second weekend in a row, Martinius Stenshorne failed to score any points. Brake issues on his final laps in qualifying limited the Norwegian to a lowly 21st on the grid, leaving him with plenty of work to do for the pair of races.
The Rodin man wouldn’t show any representative pace during the sprint, coming home only 14th, well off the pace-setters.
But it was in the Feature Race where Stenshorne put in an excellent recovery drive, albeit in vain. Ascending from 21st on the grid, he made his mandatory pit stop under the virtual safety car, rejoining with a strong chance of scoring points on the grippier super soft tyre.
He would eventually take the chequered flag sixth. His joy, though, was short-lived, with 30 seconds of post-race penalties later demoting him down to 19th and last on the road.
The Norwegian driver drops down to seventh in the standings and will be looking for a major boost heading into Silverstone.
Winner: Ollie Goethe
It’s no secret that 2026 hasn’t been kind to MP Motorsport’s Ollie Goethe.
It has been a difficult season for the German driver, with incidents in Miami and Canada, and a lack of pace in Monaco hampering his weekends all the way, after finishing fourth in Melbourne.
Stalling on the grid meant he had to be wheeled into the pit lane in Spain, while he was caught up in the opening lap melee in the Austrian sprint on Saturday.
However, his practice pace translated into seventh in qualifying, putting him in prime position to score big across the weekend.
Starting on the more durable soft tyre and running deep into the Feature Race, Goethe’s pit stop put him well placed in the top 10, and he made light work of the squabbling trio of Joshua Dürksen, Dunne and Câmara to rise up to third.
A solid haul of points for Goethe, as he added the fastest lap point to a maiden F2 podium finish and ascended to 12th in the standings.
Loser: Joshua Dürksen
After a scoreless weekend in Barcelona, Dürksen would qualify 11th for the Austrian weekend, looking in a prime position to return to the points.
However, an incident up ahead for teammate Câmara on the opening lap of the sprint saw the Paraguayan driver stranded in the middle of the corner, dropping him down towards the rear of the field. He eventually failed to score in the race.
It was in the Feature Race, though, where the Invicta man would rue a big opportunity that went missing. On the opening lap, it was slight contact between himself and VAR’s Rafael Villagómez through the kink of Turn 2 that sent the Mexican into Sebastián Montoya’s PREMA, with the latter two out of the race.
Despite being in contention for a podium at one point, Dürksen wouldn’t be able to resist pressure from the chasing supersoft group of Goethe, Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, Laurens van Hoepen and León, running wide at Turn 1 and dropping to 10th on the road, before Stenshorne’s penalty would lift him to ninth.
Winner: John Bennett
Trident have experienced a resurgent 2026, after scoring just two points through all of 2025. Most of this success has come on van Hoepen’s end of the garage, with his brace of podiums in Melbourne and Miami.
Bennett’s torrid luck saw him lose out on points in Canada, having qualified up a solid fourth for the race. However, the Salisbury native has been quick to recover his season across the European leg.
The traits of the Red Bull Ring played into the Trident man’s strengths, as he qualified in the top 10 for only the second time in 2026.
Starting on the front row for the 28-lap Feature Race, Bennett’s excellent launch fetched an early race lead. Despite losing position to PREMA’s Sebastián Montoya, the 22-year-old stayed within touching distance, keeping his tyres in check.
As the Colombian’s tyres fell away, Bennett’s patience paid off. He would be right on Montoya’s tail onto the final lap, with the winning move put on the exit of Turn 4, as Bennett soaked in the feeling of a maiden F2 win just moments later.
Although he just missed out on the points during the Feature Race in 11th, Bennett would certainly call this one of his best weekends in the sport, coming good ahead of his home weekend in Silverstone.
Loser: Hitech
Hitech have scored points in every weekend of 2026. However, the Styrian mountains weren’t as kind to both Colton Herta and Ritomo Miyata. A difficult qualifying performance left both drivers languishing in 17th and 20th, with plenty to do.
Herta would retire late in the sprint, triggering the VSC as he stopped off on the exit of Turn 3, while Miyata was last of the classified runners in 17th.
It was a similar story in Sunday’s Feature, with neither driver close to the points, and Herta just avoiding a fiery PREMA of Mari Boya at Turn 3.
Eventually, both drivers rounded the weekend in 14th and 17th, dropping Hitech to eighth on the ladder. Along with AIX Racing, they are the only team yet to finish on the podium in 2026.
Winner: Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak
It’s been one-way traffic on the ART garage ever since the opening weekend in Melbourne, but Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak finally delivered a strong performance at the Red Bull Ring this weekend.
Qualifying up in sixth helped the Thai driver’s case, putting him in a prime position to score big during the weekend. However, his sprint wouldn’t play out as planned, with his ART tipped into a spin by Câmara at Turn 3, bringing his race to an end.
Although there was perfect redemption in the following day’s Feature Race. Starting on the more durable soft tyres, Inthraphuvasak ran well into the 30-lap mark before switching for a dash on the supersoft tyres to the finish.
Despite rejoining the race behind teammate Kush Maini, he made light work of those ahead, rising up to fifth before pushing Câmara all the way up until the end of the race.
It was only a third points finish for the ART man in 2026, but could be a defining weekend in his rookie F2 season.
Loser: Dino Beganovic
For the first time this season, Beganovic endured a difficult weekend, outqualified by rookie teammate Roman Bilinski, with both DAMS drivers starting only 13th and 14th for the pair of races.
The duo endured contrasting weekends. Bilinski took advantage of the opening lap chaos to finish high up in sixth, while Beganovic came home down in 13th.
In the Feature Race, it would be a similar story, with the DAMS pair moving in opposite directions. Beganovic would lose out as his tyres dropped away towards the end of the race, only coming home in 13th, three spots behind his Polish teammate.
It was a first non-scoring weekend for Beganovic, and he will look to quickly regroup ahead of F2’s visit to Silverstone in the coming weekend.
Winner: Noel León
For much of the 2026 F2 season, Campos’ Noel León ended up being at the front of the field on Saturdays. So much so that he has scored two sprint wins in 2026, a key factor to him being up in fifth in the standings so far.
It was a big weekend for Mexican drivers at the Red Bull Ring, with Ernesto Rivera claiming victory in the F3 sprint, while VAR’s Rafael Villagómez took third in the F2 sprint just hours later. However, one of the highlights of the weekend was León’s strategy to go bold in Friday qualifying.
Going out much earlier than his compatriots, the Campos man risked it all to put in the fastest lap on a clear track, putting himself up top. A nervous 12 minutes would follow for Campos before they could finally celebrate a first pole of the season.
It was a stellar moment for León, and although he would fall behind in both races of the weekend, Friday’s qualifying brought him the best moment of his F2 career so far.
Losers: Alex Dunne, Rafa Câmara
It would be harsh placing two drivers who finished in the top six on this side of the weekend, but neither Câmara nor Dunne would be fully satisfied with how their weekends played out.
Câmara’s four-weekend run of qualifying in the top two ended, as he only put himself into fifth on Friday, while Dunne split the two Campos cars by taking second in the 30-minute session.
The Brazilian driver, though, would be found at fault for the opening lap collision in the sprint, losing his sixth-place finish after receiving a five-second penalty. He would make up for it in the Feature Race, though, finishing a solid fourth on the road.
It was the opposite case for Dunne, who had a stronger sprint by finishing fourth, but slid down the order in the Feature Race, finishing only seventh on worn soft tyres, before a penalty for teammate Stenshorne promoted him to sixth.
Both drivers will be ruing their missed opportunities across the weekend, and look to close the gap to the top two in the championship.
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