Roundup of the fifth round of the 2026 F2 season as the grid headed to Barcelona, Spain.
MP Motorsport’s Gabriele Mini arrived in Catalonia with a slender one-point lead over Campos’ Nikola Tsolov, with both drivers aware that Noel Leon and Alex Dunne were hot on their heels in the title race into the fifth round of the season.
Practice
Having conducted pre-season testing around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in February, many drivers opted for an outlap before pitting, aside from Rafael Villagomez and Martinius Stenshorne who conducted two outlaps before they pitted.
Once everyone came back out just past the 20-minute mark, Tsolov set the initial unrepresentative benchmark time of 1m 39.115, which he subsequently lowered to 1m 27.136 as everyone prioritised a single representative flying lap before race simulations.
Trident’s Laurens van Hoepen emerged quickest with 1m 26.776 set in the 27th minute as Alex Dunne fell 0.070 seconds shy in second, although he was subsequently displaced by DAMS’ Roman Bilinski who went second and 0.051s off Van Hoepen’s time.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Laurens Van Hoepen | Trident | 1m 26.776 |
| 2 | Roman Bilinski | DAMS | + 0.051 |
| 3 | Alex Dunne | Rodin | + 0.070 |
| 4 | Rafael Villagomez | VAR | + 0.131 |
| 5 | Martinius Stenshorne | Rodin | + 0.219 |
| 6 | Gabriele Mini | MP Motorsport | + 0.225 |
| 7 | Rafael Camara | Invicta | + 0.284 |
| 8 | Colton Herta | Hitech GP | + 0.294 |
| 9 | Nikola Tsolov | Campos | + 0.360 |
| 10 | Sebastian Montoya | PREMA | + 0.366 |
| 11 | Ritomo Miyata | Hitech GP | + 0.398 |
| 12 | Kush Maini | ART GP | + 0.415 |
| 13 | Nico Varrone | VAR | + 0.428 |
| 14 | Dino Beganovic | DAMS | + 0.487 |
| 15 | Mari Boya | PREMA | + 0.530 |
| 16 | Joshua Durksen | Invicta | + 0.744 |
| 17 | Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak | ART GP | + 1.007 |
| 18 | John Bennett | Trident | + 1.148 |
| 19 | Emerson Fittipaldi | AIX Racing | + 1.343 |
| 20 | Cian Shields | AIX Racing | + 1.601 |
| 21 | Noel Leon | Campos | + 13.878 |
| 22 | Oliver Goethe | MP Motorsport | + 14.268 |
Qualifying
Varrone was first on track and set 1m 42.489 as the initial unrepresentative benchmark time which he eventually lowered to 1m 26.025 as everyone switched to the soft tyre for the qualifying session.
Some drivers however held back until mid-session on their opening runs which left Herta top on 1m 25.387 amongst the initial runners, ahead of Durksen by 0.054s with Miyata a further 0.002s off the Paraguayan in third.
Camara however beat that lap time with 1m 24.810 on the halfway mark amongst the mid-session runners to head Tsolov and Maini ahead of the final runs.
Once the final runs commenced, Villagomez briefly went second before he was displaced by Mini then Dunne before the red flags came out with three minutes and 41 seconds left on the clock, after Miyata spun out of the final corner which dropped him to last with his fastest lap time deleted as a consequence.
Durksen however improved to second just as the red flag was waved, yet stewards ruled that he should of slowed down for yellow flags and penalised him five grid spots for both races.
After a nine-minute delay, only Fittipaldi, Goethe and Beganovic ventured straight back out but nobody could beat Camara’s time, as he once again took pole for the feature race.
Durksen’s grid penalty dropped him to 14th for the sprint and seventh for the feature race, which meant that Dunne was elevated to second for the latter race ahead of Mini, Villagomez, Tsolov and Varrone.
Herta qualified eighth from Maini and Leon who inherited reverse-pole for the sprint.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Rafael Camara | Invicta | 1m 24.810 |
| 2 | Joshua Durksen | Invicta | + 0.135 |
| 3 | Alex Dunne | Rodin | + 0.225 |
| 4 | Gabriele Mini | MP Motorsport | + 0.334 |
| 5 | Rafael Villagomez | VAR | + 0.373 |
| 6 | Nikola Tsolov | Campos | + 0.412 |
| 7 | Nico Varrone | VAR | + 0.427 |
| 8 | Colton Herta | Hitech GP | + 0.4430 |
| 9 | Kush Maini | ART GP | + 0.454 |
| 10 | Noel Leon | Campos | + 0.455 |
| 11 | Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak | ART GP | + 0.598 |
| 12 | Dino Beganovic | DAMS | + 0.608 |
| 13 | Laurens van Hoepen | Trident | + 0.711 |
| 14 | Oliver Goethe | MP Motorsport | + 0.725 |
| 15 | Martinius Stenshorne | Hitech GP | + 0.764 |
| 16 | Roman Bilinski | DAMS | + 0.766 |
| 17 | Emerson Fittipaldi | AIX Racing | + 0.854 |
| 18 | John Bennett | Trident | + 0.926 |
| 19 | Sebastian Montoya | PREMA | + 1.069 |
| 20 | Mari Boya | PREMA | + 1.209 |
| 21 | Cian Shields | AIX Racing | + 1.408 |
| 22 | Ritomo Miyata | Hitech GP | + 7.810 |
Sprint Race
At lights out, Leon lost the lead to Maini whilst Tsolov made up two positions on Varrone and Herta to take third around the outside of turn one, before Mini then demoted Varrone to sixth.
Durksen meanwhile got punted out wide at turn 12 by Stenshorne to end any hopes of a top-eight finish.
Mini meanwhile cleared Herta for fourth on the second lap before Tsolov and Leon swapped positions around the outside of turn one on lap three, with Mini following suit three laps later to demote Leon to fourth as Maini up front built an unbreakable lead which grew to around four seconds.
Camara, Beganovic and Dunne bided their time before they passed Villagomez between laps 17 – 19 to drop the Mexican out of the top eight.
Up front, Mini cleared Tsolov on lap 23 with an outside move into the first corner before Herta followed through at turn seven on the inside for third.
Herta proceeded to lure in Mini until he ran wide out of Turn 5 on the final lap which dropped him to fifth behind Tsolov and Leon, as Maini cruised to a comfortable victory of over seven seconds.
Camara, Beganovic and Dunne rounded out the top eight.
In the drivers’ standings, Mini slightly extended his title lead over Tsolov to three points as Leon sat 21 points behind the Italian in third, albeit one point ahead of Dunne.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Kush Maini | ART GP | 26 | 39m 55.725 |
| 2 | Gabriele Mini | MP Motorsport | 26 | + 7.269 |
| 3 | Nikola Tsolov | Campos | 26 | + 12.164 |
| 4 | Noel Leon | Campos | 26 | + 12.784 |
| 5 | Colton Herta | Hitech GP | 26 | + 13.453 |
| 6 | Rafael Camara | Invicta | 26 | + 13.828 |
| 7 | Dino Beganovic | DAMS | 26 | + 16.841 |
| 8 | Alex Dunne | Rodin | 26 | + 17.723 |
| 9 | Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak | ART GP | 26 | + 26.573 |
| 10 | Sebastian Montoya | PREMA | 26 | + 31.007 |
| 11 | Oliver Goethe | MP Motorsport | 26 | + 31.893 |
| 12 | Nico Varrone | VAR | 26 | + 34.918 |
| 13 | John Bennett | Trident | 26 | + 35.514 |
| 14 | Ritomo Miyata | Hitech GP | 26 | + 35.814 |
| 15 | Mari Boya | PREMA | 26 | + 37.837 |
| 16 | Emerson Fittipaldi | AIX Racing | 26 | + 38.367 |
| 17 | Rafael Villagomez | VAR | 26 | + 38.460 |
| 18 | Martinius Stenshorne | Rodin | 26 | + 40.402 |
| 19 | Laurens Van Hoepen | Trident | 26 | + 41.087 |
| 20 | Joshua Durksen | Invicta | 26 | + 41.775 |
| 21 | Roman Bilinski | DAMS | 26 | + 49.523 |
| 22 | Cian Shields | AIX Racing | 26 | + 54.885 |
Feature Race
At lights out, Camara lost the lead to Dunne whilst Villagomez passed Mini for third, but the Italian then briefly lost fourth to Tsolov but repassed his title rival around the outside of turn three.
Tsolov however began on the hard tyre and slipped to eighth by lap 6 as the lead hard tyre runner as the soft runners began to come through.
Villagomez meanwhile lost third to Mini on lap 10 on the inside of turn two and was the first frontrunner to pit on lap 13, followed by Dunne then Mini on laps 14 and 15 respectively.
Camara meanwhile opted to stay out until the end of lap 22 when he made his stop but rejoined a net fifth after a slow front-left tyre change cost him a chance to jump Dunne for the net lead as he rejoined in a net fifth.
The Brazilian however quickly cleared Beganovic then Villagomez before he passed Mini into the first corner on lap 28 and set about chasing Dunne down to within a second by the end of that lap.
Dunne eventually conceded the lead across the line on lap 30 to Camara who cruised to victory thereafter, whilst he settled for second.
Tsolov however was a charge after his pit stop on lap 24 and recovered to fourth by lap 34 when he cleared Mini for third, then caught and passed Dunne around the outside of Turn 4 a lap later for second.
In the driver standings, Tsolov took the title lead from Mini by three points, whilst Camara climbed to third and 17 points adrift of the Bulgarian.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Rafael Camara | Invicta | 37 | 37 Laps |
| 2 | Nikola Tsolov | Campos | 37 | + 9.8 |
| 3 | Alex Dunne | Rodin | 37 | + 12.4 |
| 4 | Gabriele Mini | MP Motorsport | 37 | + 13.4 |
| 5 | Laurens van Hoepen | Trident | 37 | + 16.9 |
| 6 | Dino Beganovic | DAMS | 37 | + 22.1 |
| 7 | John Bennett | Trident | 37 | + 23.7 |
| 8 | Noel Leon | Campos | 37 | + 27.1 |
| 9 | Kush Maini | ART GP | 37 | + 27.8 |
| 10 | Roman Bilinski | DAMS | 37 | + 29.1 |
| 11 | Rafael Villagomez | VAR | 37 | + 32.4 |
| 12 | Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak | ART GP | 37 | + 33.1 |
| 13 | Nico Varrone | VAR | 37 | + 36.3 |
| 14 | Joshua Durksen | Hitech GP | 37 | + 40.4 |
| 15 | Colton Herta | Invicta | 37 | + 41.3 |
| 16 | Sebastian Montoya | PREMA | 37 | + 48.4 |
| 17 | Martinius Stenshorne | Rodin | 37 | + 49.7 |
| 18 | Emerson Fittipaldi | AIX Racing | 37 | + 50.7 |
| 19 | Ritomo Miyata | Hitech GP | 37 | + 53.6 |
| 20 | Cian Shields | AIX Racing | 37 | + 88.6 |
| 21 | Mari Boya | PREMA | 36 | + 1 Lap |
| RET | Oliver Goethe | MP Motorsport | 0 | Mechanical |
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