Campos Racing’s Noel León finished third in the first of two F2 Qualifying sessions at the super-sized Baku round, with the Mexican trailing the Rodin Motorsport duo, who locked out the front row for both Feature Races this weekend.
Although he finished sixth in Qualifying 2, León heads into the weekend with a strong opportunity to fight for a solid points haul across all three races. Speaking in the post-Qualifying press conference, attended by Pit Debrief, the Campos driver reflected on his session, saying: “It was a bit tough to manage the traffic, everybody was trying to look for a slipstream, and yeah, it’s quite important so at the end of the day I’m happy with my lap.”
“I think my slipstream wasn’t the best for Q1 and I think so we missed pole because of that, but I’m very happy with the performance of the car, of the team, and it’s a good position for tomorrow.”
A strong run of form since returning from the summer break
Since returning from the summer break, León has enjoyed a strong run of form, scoring points at every race except one and securing a podium in the Monza Feature Race with a third-place finish.
When asked how he feels about the momentum he has built since securing his breakthrough Feature Race win in Hungary, León said: “Yes I think so. We had a couple of tough weekends before the summer, and things didn’t come my way and some stuff it was not on my side, and just couldn’t get away from that.”
“So I’m happy that after Budapest everything is coming nicely and going better every time, and we just keep the momentum until the end of the season. So yeah, really happy with the progress and we’ll keep pushing.”
León anticipates a “tough” fight to keep up with Rodin duo
“I mean, these guys are pretty quick, you can see that they qualify one and two in both quali, so it’s gonna be tough.”, the Mexican said when asked about his chances of winning the first of two Feature Races this weekend.
“I think, as I say, I’m very happy with my lap and with the performance of the team because in the morning we didn’t look as strong as we are now, so we are doing steps and we’ll try to make another one for tomorrow and we’ll see how fast these guys are.”
Pleased with the lap he put together, especially on his first visit to the venue, León was satisfied with how he maximised his day. While he acknowledged the challenges of adapting to a new circuit, the Mexican heads into tomorrow’s races excited about the opportunities ahead.
“For me, I felt like I did a lap of my life, so yeah I’m very happy.”, he said. “Obviously, it was difficult to to find a good slipstream to put all together. You know, it’s a lot of corners, first time for me here in Baku, so you always kind of push a little bit more.”
“You don’t know where is the limit, so for me it was difficult. But yeah, I’m happy that at the end of the day I maximised quali and I think so the step that I did from free practice to quali was a good one and we’ll look forward for tomorrow.”
León heads into the twelfth round of the 2026 F2 season in Baku fifth in the Drivers’ Standings with 119 points. Starting from strong positions throughout the weekend, the Campos driver will have a great chance to close the gap to his rivals ahead.
