Gabriele Minì claimed victory during the Sprint Race at the 2026 F2 Budapest Round at the Hungarian GP, view the full race report here.
Round 9 of the 2026 F2 season began with Dino Beganovic topping Free Practice with a strong 1:30.720. Qualifying, however, saw Kush Maini secure his second pole of the season, narrowly beating Rafael Câmara by 0.117s. Further back, Sebastián Montoya finished P10, taking his third reverse grid pole for the Sprint Race.
As preparations for the Sprint Race concluded, Montoya lined up on the front row alongside Gabriele Minì in P2. Beganovic started in P3, while Nikola Tsolov and Laurens Van Hoepen completed the top five.
Lights out for the 2026 F2 Budapest Sprint Race
As the five lights went out, Montoya got off to a strong start, while Tsolov managed to jump up to P3, getting ahead of Beganovic. After a clean opening lap, Montoya quickly began to build a significant gap at the front, running 1.7s clear of Minì. However, after taking the fastest lap on Lap 3, Minì slowly began to close down the gap to enter DRS range. Behind, Tsolov fell under pressure from a DRS train.
Despite catching up with Montoya, Minì briefly dropped out of DRS range on Lap 6 before closing the gap down once again. Further down in P8, Maini looked and sounded eager to move past his ART Grand Prix teammate, though Inthraphuvasak resisted the pressure. By Lap 12, Montoya remained in control of the 2026 F2 Hungarian Sprint Race with Minì and Tsolov behind.
A close battle for the lead
With 14 laps left, the top nine drivers were all within DRS range as Minì continued his chase for the lead. Minì finally made the decisive move at Turn 1 of Lap 17, going down the inside of Montoya. As Minì secured the lead, the Colombian came under pressure from Tsolov. The Bulgarian driver tried to move past Montoya on the following lap, but wasn’t able to make it stick.
Drama struck on Lap 21 as Tsolov and Montoya made contact at Turn 1, with the Campos racer making a very rare mistake by clouting into the PREMA and destroying their races. The incident triggered a brief Virtual Safety Car as Montoya retired, while Tsolov returned to the pits with damage. The championship leader ultimately joined the DNF list as a few drivers used the VSC to come into the pit lane and put on soft tyres.
With Montoya and Tsolov out, Minì continued his race lead with Beganovic, Van Hoepen, Câmara, and Maini behind.
Final moments
Heading into the final moment, Race Control noted Noel León for a VSC infringement. Meanwhile, León made a move past Joshua Dürsken, taking P7 after a tight battle through Turn 1 and 2. Despite running in P7, the Campos Racing driver was soon handed a 5-second time penalty.
At the front, Minì extended his lead to 4.2s as Beganovic dropped under pressure from Van Hoepen and Câmara. Minì ultimately took victory, crossing the chequered flag in P1, allowing him to close in on Tsolov’s championship lead. Beganovic and Van Hoepen finished P2 and P3, respectively, completing the 2026 F2 Hungarian Sprint Race podium.
