Joshua Durksen emerged victorious on Saturday (7) in the Sprint race of the opening round of the 2026 Formula 2 season, held at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne. The Invicta driver took the lead on the second of the 23 laps contested on the Australian track and maintained his position to claim victory in the race that kicked off the championship.
Noel León, driving for Campos Racing, secured the second position, finishing just over two seconds behind Durksen. Alexander Dunne, piloting a Rodin car, benefited from a penalty imposed on his teammate Martinius Stenshorne to claim third place. Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, representing ART Grand Prix, finished fourth after starting from pole position, followed by Ritomo Miyata, who secured fifth place with Hitech.
Gabriele Mini, driving for MP Motorsport, concluded the competition in sixth place, ahead of Laurens van Hoepen, who finished seventh with Trident. Roman Bilinski guided the DAMS car to eighth place, while Sebastian Montoya, representing Prema, secured ninth position. Stenshorne, despite receiving a penalty for forcing an opponent off the track, managed to finish tenth with Rodin.
Rafael Câmara experienced a bittersweet debut in F2. The driver remained in the top-5 for most of the race and battled for a podium position after a restart but lost performance shortly thereafter and crossed the finish line in 11th place with Invicta. Emmo Fittipaldi, making his debut in the category with AIX Racing, gained positions and finished 14th. Meanwhile, Colton Herta, who switched from Indy to the F1 feeder series, secured 16th place with Hitech.
The eventful race saw the deployment of the Safety Car on the 15th of the 23 laps, following Mari Boya’s crash into the wall with the Prema car, which forced him to retire from the competition.
The race that concludes the first round of F2 is scheduled to take place at 21:25.
