Roundup of the ninth round of the 2026 F2 season in Hungary ahead of the summer break.
Campos’ Nikola Tsolov arrived at the Hungaroring, Budapest, Hungary, with a 27-point lead over title rival, Gabriele Mini whilst Rafael Camara sat 36 points behind the Bulgarian in third as the trio looked to continue their momentum going into the break.
This weekend however saw his two nearest rivals cut their deficits down heading into the summer break.
Practice
Invicta’s Joshua Durksen led the grid out for installation laps but everyone opted to pit at the end of those laps for brief tweaks, which led Durksen to then lay an unrepresentative benchmark time of 1m 43.242 in the eighth minute which he soon lowered to 1m 34.615 on his first flying lap.
Hitech GP’s Colton Herta and Ritomo Miyata soon lowered the pace before Rafael Camara posted 1m 31.484 in the 13th minute to put himself fastest from PREMA’s Sebastian Montoya by 0.142s, when red flags came out in the 20th minute following Mari Boya’s brake failure into turn one.
The session resumed eight minutes later and Mini proceeded to lay 1m 30.744 as the benchmark time in the 31st minute, which Tsolov beat with 1m 30.603 just four minutes later but his lap time was deleted due to a breach of track limits.
Beganovic eventually emerged fastest with 1m 30.720 as Mini improved his time but fell 0.015s shy of the Swedish driver.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Dino Beganovic | DAMS | 1m 30.720 |
| 2 | Gabriel Mini | MP Motorsport | + 0.015 |
| 3 | Nico Varrone | VAR | + 0.021 |
| 4 | Nikola Tsolov | Campos | + 0.137 |
| 5 | Rafael Camara | Invicta | + 0.171 |
| 6 | Alex Dunne | Rodin | + 0.199 |
| 7 | Oliver Goethe | MP Motorsport | + 0.239 |
| 8 | Martinius Stenshorne | Rodin | + 0.242 |
| 9 | Roman Bilinski | DAMS | + 0.379 |
| 10 | Laurens van Hoepen | Trident | + 0.408 |
| 11 | Ritomo Miyata | Hitech GP | + 0.412 |
| 12 | Kush Maini | ART GP | + 0.419 |
| 13 | John Bennett | Trident | + 0.424 |
| 14 | Rafael Villagomez | VAR | + 0.478 |
| 15 | Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak | ART GP | + 0.479 |
| 16 | Sebastian Montoya | PREMA | + 0.566 |
| 17 | Noel Leon | Campos | + 0.618 |
| 18 | Joshua Durksen | Invicta | + 0.764 |
| 19 | Colton Herta | Hitech GP | + 0.853 |
| 20 | Emerson Fittipaldi | AIX Racing | + 1.179 |
| 21 | Cian Shields | AIX Racing | + 1.304 |
| 22 | Mari Boya | PREMA | + 10.125 |
Qualifying
Herta was first out of the pit lane and set 1m 46.991 as the initial unrepresentative lap time, which he soon lowered to a more representative 1m 31.157 but his time was soon usurped as Tsolov posted 1m 29.601 to go fastest from Mini by 0.193s.
Camara, Miyata, Leon, Maini, Inthraphuvasak, Varrone and Villagomez however stayed in the pit lane and went out in the middle of the session to do their own opening runs, which saw Camara go quickest in the 15th minute with 1m 29.380 from Leon by 0.106s and Maini in third.
Camara however was able to retain enough tyre lift to go for another flier and lowered his benchmark time to 1m 29.323 with 11 minutes left.
Tsolov however found 0.010s on the first flier of his second run to go quickest on 1m 29.313, only for Durksen to find 0.207s on his late flier to go fastest, yet Maini had opted for a quick pit stop after his late opening run and produced a surprise 1. 28.896 to go onto provisional pole.
His fellow late opening stint runners however came out of the pits just as he, Durksen and Tsolov pitted, but nobody managed to beat Maini’s time as Camara fell 0.117s shy in second ahead of; Leon, Durksen, Inthraphuvasak, Van Hoepen, Tsolov, Beganovic and Mini.
Montoya rounded out the top ten by just 0.003s from Stenshorne and inherited reverse-pole for the sprint race.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Kush Maini | ART GP | 1m 28.896 |
| 2 | Rafael Camara | Invicta | + 0.117 |
| 3 | Noel Leon | Campos | + 0.195 |
| 4 | Joshua Durksen | Invicta | + 0.210 |
| 5 | Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak | ART GP | + 0.311 |
| 6 | Laurens van Hoepen | Trident | + 0.374 |
| 7 | Nikola Tsolov | Campos | + 0.417 |
| 8 | Dino Beganovic | DAMS | + 0.423 |
| 9 | Gabriele Mini | MP Motorsport | + 0.445 |
| 10 | Sebastian Montoya | PREMA | + 0.567 |
| 11 | Martinius Stenshorne | Rodin | + 0.570 |
| 12 | Rafael Villagomez | VAR | + 0.615 |
| 13 | Oliver Goethe | MP Motorsport | + 0.689 |
| 14 | John Bennett | Trident | + 0.895 |
| 15 | Emerson Fittipaldi | AIX Racing | + 0.908 |
| 16 | Nico Varrone | VAR | + 0.933 |
| 17 | Alex Dunne | Rodin | + 0.939 |
| 18 | Colton Herta | Hitech GP | + 1.028 |
| 19 | Cian Shields | AIX Racing | + 1.135 |
| 20 | Roman Bilinski | DAMS | + 1.178 |
| 21 | Ritomo Miyata | Hitech GP | + 1.212 |
| 22 | Mari Boya | PREMA | + 1.513 |
Sprint Race
At lights out, Montoya made a clean start to lead Mini whilst Tsolov jumped Beganovic for third before the field settled into a holding pattern quickly owing to the tyre degradation seen in the F3 sprint earlier that day.
Mini ultimately had to wait until lap 17 before he got the switchback out of turn one on Montoya to pass the Colombian for the lead after he had ran deep into the corner.
Montoya’s race was eventually ended on lap 21 after Tsolov attempted an inside move at turn one which broke both of their suspensions, which left the Bulgarian with a five-place grid penalty for the feature race.
Mini ultimately cruised to his second win of the season from Beganovic, Van Hoepen, Camara, Maini, Inthraphuvasak, Durksen and Stenshorne, with Leon having originally finished seventh on the road but had received a five-second time penalty for a virtual safety car (VSC) infringement to drop to ninth.
In the drivers’ standings, Tsolov’s failure to score meant that Mini cut his title deficit down to 16 points with Camara a further 15 points behind the Italian in third, as 31 points split the top three ahead of the feature race.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Gabriele Mini | MP Motorsport | 28 | 44m 19.172 |
| 2 | Dino Beganovic | DAMS | 28 | + 3.787 |
| 3 | Laurens van Hoepen | Trident | 28 | + 4.876 |
| 4 | Rafael Camara | Invicta | 28 | + 7.021 |
| 5 | Kush Maini | ART GP | 28 | + 12.836 |
| 6 | Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak | ART GP | 28 | + 15.646 |
| 7 | Joshua Durksen | Invicta | 28 | + 20.215 |
| 8 | Martinius Stenshorne | Rodin | 28 | + 20.830 |
| 9 | Noel Leon | Campos | 28 | + 21.113 |
| 10 | John Bennett | Trident | 28 | + 21.271 |
| 11 | Nico Varrone | VAR | 28 | + 23.003 |
| 12 | Oliver Goethe | MP Motorsport | 28 | + 24.410 |
| 13 | Ritomo Miyata | Hitech GP | 28 | + 24.907 |
| 14 | Colton Herta | Hitech GP | 28 | + 25.786 |
| 15 | Rafael Villagomez | VAR | 28 | + 31.436 |
| 16 | Cian Shields | AIX Racing | 28 | + 33.756 |
| 17 | Mari Boya | PREMA | 28 | + 34.633 |
| 18 | Roman Bilinski | DAMS | 28 | + 38.808 |
| 19 | Alex Dunne | Rodin | 28 | + 39.139 |
| 20 | Emerson Fittipaldi | AIX Racing | 28 | + 63.775 |
| RET | Nikola Tsolov | Campos | 21 | Collision |
| RET | Sebastian Montoya | PREMA | 20 | Collision |
Feature Race
At lights out, Maini got a clean getaway but Camara was jumped for second by Leon, whilst Van Hoepen cleared Inthraphuvasak for fourth at turn two with the latter on the alternate strategy, which led Durksen to clear him into turn one on the second lap for fifth.
Tsolov meanwhile found himself 11th once things settled down until he cleared Varrone and Montoya by the end of lap eight, with the latter pair amongst early soft-tyre runners to pit for medium tyres as the momentum swung towards the medium-tyre runners on the alternate strategy.
Inthraphuvasak consequently passed Durksen on lap 14 for fifth into turn one which led the Paraguayan to pit two laps later.
Leon however timed his pit stop to perfection on lap 17 as the VSC came out after Rafael Villagomez stopped on track, which allowed the Mexican to jump Maini for the net lead when the ART GP driver pitted on lap 22.
Those who began on the medium tyre meanwhile pitted within the same period except for Dunne who hung it out until he pitted on lap 32.
Maini and Camara – who pitted on lap 21 – meanwhile worked as a pair to reel Leon in and by the time Dunne made his pit stop to unleash Leon into the race lead, the Mexican only held a 1.1s gap to Maini.
Leon eventually held off Maini and Camara for victory ahead of; Van Hoepen, Inthraphuvasak, Beganovic, Tsolov, Durksen, Mini and Bennett who rounded out the top ten.
In the drivers’ standings, Tsolov extended his title lead over Mini to 20 points with the Italian only ahead of third-placed Camara by two points, as just 22 points split the trio.
F2 will now head on a six-week break and return on the weekend of 4-6 September at Monza, Italy.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Noel Leon | Campos | 37 | 58m 35.987 |
| 2 | Kush Maini | ART GP | 37 | + 0.887 |
| 3 | Rafael Camara | Invicta | 37 | + 1.376 |
| 4 | Laurens van Hoepen | Trident | 37 | + 4.994 |
| 5 | Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak | ART GP | 37 | + 9.416 |
| 6 | Dino Beganovic | DAMS | 37 | + 12.589 |
| 7 | Nikola Tsolov | Campos | 37 | + 13.342 |
| 8 | Joshua Durksen | Invicta | 37 | + 17.393 |
| 9 | Gabriele Mini | MP Motorsport | 37 | + 19.098 |
| 10 | John Bennett | Trident | 37 | + 23.927 |
| 11 | Alex Dunne | Rodin | 37 | + 24.394 |
| 12 | Nico Varrone | VAR | 37 | + 38.671 |
| 13 | Ritomo Miyata | Hitech GP | 37 | + 39.253 |
| 14 | Roman Bilinski | DAMS | 37 | + 39.449 |
| 15 | Mari Boya | PREMA | 37 | + 48.918 |
| 16 | Sebastian Montoya | PREMA | 37 | + 49.214 |
| 17 | Emerson Fittipaldi | AIX Racing | 37 | + 50.327 |
| 18 | Oliver Goethe | MP Motorsport | 37 | + 50.876 |
| 19 | Colton Herta | Hitech GP | 37 | + 55.476 |
| 20 | Cian Shields | AIX Racing | 37 | + 59.976 |
| 21 | Martinius Stenshorne | Rodin | 35 | + 2 Laps |
| RET | Rafael Villagomez | VAR | 15 | Mechanical |