Round 8 of the Formula 2 (F2) Championship got underway at Spa-Francorchamps, during the 2026 Belgian GP weekend, as Free Practice began under green light conditions.
Cars streamed onto the circuit for what promised to be a decisive weekend in the title battle. Nikola Tsolov arrived as the man to beat, having swept the previous round at Silverstone in record-breaking fashion. Drivers ran the yellow-marked Medium tyres throughout the session, with the purple-walled Supersofts held back for Qualifying later in the day.
Bilinski sets the early pace
The opening minutes belonged to preparation laps, with nobody troubling the timing screens just yet. Rafael Camara eventually became the first driver to set a marker, going fastest for Invicta Racing with a 2:00.057.
Roman Bilinski soon displaced him, edging ahead of teammate Dino Beganovic by 0.017 seconds with a 2:00.015, before the Polish driver improved further still to a 1:59.261, stretching his advantage to 0.278 seconds. A handful of track limits infringements disrupted the order around this point, Kush Maini becoming the latest driver to lose a laptime to the stewards.
Tsolov goes fastest as track limits bite
Tsolov then asserted himself at the top, clocking a 1:58.927 to lead Martinius Stenshorne by two tenths with twenty minutes remaining. Alexander Dunne, who had already exceeded track limits once and lost a lap for it, climbed to third to complete a Rodin one-two-three, just 0.002 seconds off his teammate — only he then breached track limits a second time, which dropped him all the way down to twenty-first.
Câmara moved up into seventh as the field turned its attention to a second round of qualifying-style runs. Dunne briefly recovered to second, but yet another track limits breach sent him tumbling back to twenty-first once again.
Red Flag for Varrone crash
A red flag then abruptly halted the session after Nico Varrone speared off at Turn 14 and nosed his Van Amersfoort Racing car into the barrier. The Argentine climbed out under his own power, and officials confirmed him unhurt, but the session ended before officials could resume it and the chequered flag fell.
Tsolov therefore emerged as the pace-setter heading into Qualifying, leaving the paddock to wonder whether anyone could deny the Bulgarian later that day.
F2 2026 Belgian GP Free Practice results
