FIA F2 returned to Spa-Francorchamps for the Sprint Race at the 2026 Belgian GP after a tightly contested Qualifying session and several post-session penalties reshaped the starting grid.
Rafael Câmara had claimed his fourth pole position of the season for Sunday’s Feature Race, while Noel León initially secured reverse-grid pole by qualifying tenth. However, the Stewards deleted all of León’s lap times after ruling that he had caused the early red flag, promoting Sebastián Montoya to tenth and handing him pole position for the Sprint Race.
Montoya lined up alongside Martinius Stenshorne on the front row, with Roman Bilinski and Joshua Dürksen directly behind them. Further penalties for Emerson Fittipaldi Jr., Rafael Villagómez and Cian Shields also altered the order towards the rear of the grid ahead of Saturday’s race.
Stenshorne takes the lead of the F3 Sprint race as Câmara climbs through the field at the Belgian GP
The F2 Sprint Race at the Belgian GP started with a slight delay of 5 minutes as the grid got ready to race around Spa-Francorchamps. Montoya made a strong start and led the field away, but Stenshorne immediately applied pressure before taking the lead on the Kemmel Straight. Meanwhile, Câmara started to make his way through the field as he put himself up two places, chasing Dunne for P7.
Dürksen, in third, stayed close to Montoya as the Invicta driver tried to overtake the car ahead, though he was unable to do so. Staying close to Montoya allowed the Paraguayan driver to prepare for the introduction of DRS at the start of lap three. Meanwhile, Race Control noted both Dürksen and Beganovic for formation-lap incidents. Beganovic had to leave the track after approaching the cars ahead too quickly.
Dürksen takes second before Shields triggers the Safety Car
León, who started at the back of the pack, seemed to struggle with staying close to the rest of the grid as his supersoft tyres started to give out on him after only 4 laps. Meanwhile, Dürksen used his DRS on Montoya overtaking for P2 just as Shields went backwards into the barriers, causing a Safety Car on track. León is the second driver to retire from the F2 Sprint Race at the 2026 Belgian GP, as the car seemed to have some issues.
With the Safety Car ending, Stenshorne needed to fight off Dürksen behind him as the Rodin driver set the pace for now as Dürksen tried to close the gap. Meanwhile, Montoya seemed to struggle during the restart, losing a bit of time while Beganovic behind him closed in on the Prema driver. Roman Bilinski seemed to have a problem with the track limits as he picked up a black and white flag from race control, while Varrone struggled up the Kemmel Straight with Laurens Van Hoepen overtaking him easily.
Dürksen seizes the lead before Bennett triggers a second Safety Car
With DRS being enabled, Beganovic got closer to Montoya, with the Prema driver locking up slightly before getting overtaken by the Dams Lucas Oil driver. Meanwhile, Tsolov tried to gain an advantage as well from Montoya’s struggles trying to overtake, though Montoya was able to keep P4 for now. At the front Stenshorne made a slight mistake as Dürksen closed the gap, and the Invicta driver took the lead. Varrone and Minì seemed to both have some issues, as both the cars went back into the pits, with Minì retiring from the F2 Sprint Race at the 2026 Belgian GP.
Meanwhile, Stenshorne stayed close to Dürksen at the front, trying to regain the lead as Tsolov in P5 tried to move ahead of Montaya, who does not have DRS. Kush Maini was the first driver to get a 5-second penalty for exceeding track limits, with multiple drivers being warned. Meanwhile John Bennet lost the engine and his rear as he spun multiple times on track, causing a second Safety Car to come out at the F2 Sprint Race at the 2026 Belgian GP. Thankfully there was no contact involving him or others as everyone was able to get out of the way of the spinning Trident.
Dürksen controls the final restart to claim Sprint Race victory
Race leader Dürksen was noted for more than one change of direction, though race control didn’t need to further investigate the incident as they cleared Dürksen. Meanwhile, the stewards were busy with removing Bennet’s Trident from the track. With only one lap left, the safety car went back into the pits, leaving a one-lap sprint to the end of the F2 Sprint Race at the 2026 Belgian GP, Dürksen went fast being able to put a slight gap between him and Stenshorne. Further back, Tsolov overtook Montoya before Dunne, Câmara, Bilinski and Goethe also passed the pole-sitter. The flurry of overtakes dropped Montoya to ninth and left him without points from the Sprint Race.
Joshua Dürksen claimed victory in the F2 Sprint Race at the Belgian GP, with Stenshorne finishing second and Beganovic completing the podium.
