F2 Monaco Wrap; Tsolov’s Feature win, Minì lean on points & drivers bound for F1 FP1

León commands the Sprint

Noel León took an impressive lights-to-flag victory in the Sprint on the streets of Monaco, notching up a second win of 2026 for Campos.

Capitalising fully on reverse-grid pole, León showed poise around the challenging Principality circuit to secure a three-second victory over Roman Bilinski and championship leader Gabriele Minì.

Bilinski clinched his maiden F2 podium for DAMS, with the top three positions remaining unchanged throughout the Sprint despite Joshua Duerksen briefly challenging Minì on the opening lap.

Laurens van Hoepen was handed a 10-second time penalty after starting 21st and climbing to 15th by Lap 8. The Dutchman was found to have left the track and gained an advantage on the opening lap.

Câmara error leads to Tsolov Feature win

A late-race error from Rafael Câmara saw Nikola Tsolov complete a Monaco double for Campos, with the victory providing a significant boost to his title challenge.

Câmara secured pole position and made a strong start ahead of Tsolov and third-placed Alex Dunne. However, on Lap 33, while battling Tsolov side-by-side into Sainte Devote following the pit stops, the Brazilian locked up and ran straight on.

The incident brought out the Virtual Safety Car and ended Câmara’s race, as he was unable to rejoin.

Behind Dunne, there was a close fight for the final podium position. Dino Beganovic leapfrogged Kush Maini for third after the Indian driver pitted on the penultimate lap, having initially held track position.

Lean weekend for Minì

Championship leader Minì endured a lean weekend by the standards he has set so far this season, despite scoring a podium in the Sprint race.

It was the non-scoring result in the Feature that proved costly, particularly with Tsolov taking maximum points.

Minì had been among the frontrunners in the Feature but dropped to 17th following a slow pit stop after becoming the first of the leaders to stop on Lap 26. He was then forced to battle the likes of León and Bilinski further down the order.

He ultimately finished 11th, just outside the points.

F1 FP1 outings confirmed

Reigning F2 champion Leonardo Fornaroli will make his Formula 1 weekend debut with McLaren at the upcoming Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, taking over Lando Norris’ car for an FP1 outing.

He will not be the only F2 alumnus stepping into F1 machinery. Luke Browning is set to drive the Williams FW48 in place of Alex Albon before returning for another FP1 appearance at the Austrian Grand Prix, replacing Carlos Sainz.

Hitech driver Colton Herta will also look ahead to a maiden FP1 outing with Cadillac after a pointless weekend in Monaco, taking over from Sergio Perez.

Championship heats up heading to Barcelona

A crucial Feature Race victory for Tsolov, combined with Minì’s scoreless Sunday, has dramatically tightened the championship battle, with just one point separating the pair heading into Barcelona.

There is then a 12-point gap back to Martinius Stenshorne in third, who added valuable points in Monaco. The Norwegian is tied on 48 points with Dunne after another Feature Race podium for the Irishman.

Third to sixth in the standings is covered by just five points, with Beganovic joining the leading group following his Monaco Feature Race podium.

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Written by

Jawad Yaqub

An eCommerce Specialist by day and reporting on F1 by night. Jawad is passionate about motorsport, having provided accredited F1 coverage for more than a decade and is a member of the AIPS (International Sports Press Association). Live blogging (almost) every grand prix too since 2014, as well as articles on the Supercars Championship. Also keen on sustainability, photography, collecting vinyl, (trying to) expertly barbeque and learning to Dad.

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