MP Motorsport’s Gabriele Minì enjoyed a strong Sprint Saturday at the 2026 F2 Australian GP, fighting his way through the field from 21st to 6th. The Italian was unlucky to miss out on a chance at pole for Sunday’s Feature Race after his car suffered a loss of power, an issue he similarly faced during Free Practice.
Reflecting on his charge through the field, Minì said: “Almost everything went well, straight away at the start we gained three places, then I gained two more, I don’t remember exactly how, but I remember that after the second lap I was in P12. And then we just had an amazing pace so I could still save the tyres and keep on overtaking.”
Fighting through the field
Minì enjoyed and maintained strong pace throughout the race, recalling his battles with Alex Dunne and Rafael Câmara before a small mistake cost him a position. Despite that he was pleased to finish 6th and gained three points he didn’t expect he could gain.
“We ended up in front of Alex [Dunne] at some point and just behind Martinius [Stenshorne] after the Safety Car restart. I managed to overtake Rafa [Câmara] and then Alex [Dunne] overtook me back. We had amazing pace, but I just tried a bit too hard and went in the gravel, so I lost a position there and then managed to stay where I was.”
“In the end it was a P6, we gained three points from last basically which I couldn’t imagine, so a very good one.”
Saturday’s pace hints at competitiveness
Starting from the back of the grid, points had seem highly unlikely for the 20 year-old. However, with his competitive pace, the Italian was thrilled to walk away with his first points of the season.
“It’s amazing, especially in the Sprint where there are no pitstops, to be able to fight for the podium already if you are in the reverse grid is really good, but from last it’s something that I didn’t even think of.”
“Today, for me, the goal was to try and score some points, but we knew that it was going to be really hard. But in the end with the pace we had and the pace I usually have around this track, we made it possible.”
Minì eager to fight again
Talking through his approach to the race, the 20 year-old shared his thoughts: “It’s not so easy to manage while you are also attacking but I was quite calm, I was having fun in the car, so it was quite easy for me to be able to manage and attack at the same time. Even in the last laps if I wanted to, I could have pushed for the fastest lap. So it was clear that we had really good pace and we showed it.”
With the first Sprint Race of the 2026 F2 season complete, MP Motorsport and Minì now turn their focus to tomorrow’s Feature Race, where strategic decisions could help the Italian climb further up the field.
“I am looking forward to tomorrow, we have ten more laps to gain even more places so we will see what happens.”
All eyes on tomorrow’s Feature Race
Optimistic ahead of tomorrow’s Feature Race, Minì said: “If everything goes smoothly, I think we can – I’m not saying fighting for the win but for sure we can again fight for the points at least.”
“Today was a very chaotic race, if it went normally maybe we would have been in the same position in the end but not as easily because in the last laps we didn’t really make up so many places, it was just fighting and losing time.”
He acknowledged the challenges of the reverse grid that often creates an unpredictable race. However, he remained confident, noting that both he and the team know what to do and have areas they still can improve on before the Feature Race.
“We will see what happens tomorrow. Also, the reverse grid makes things a bit more chaotic because the quicker guys are starting more in the back and slower ones a bit more in the front so let’s see what happens.”
“We will try to have the same pace, I’m sure that both me and the team know what to do and we have some things that we can even improve for tomorrow. Then we will see how it goes.”
