Noel León won this Saturday (the 23rd) the Sprint race that opened the third round of the 2026 Formula 2 season, held at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Canada. The ART Grand Prix driver showed fighting spirit over the 28 laps, took the lead on the 18th lap by overtaking Gabriele Mini, and pulled away to claim the victory.
Second place went to Mini, MP Motorsport driver who led for the majority of the race but could not keep up with León after losing the lead. Martinius Stenshorne, driving a Rodin Motorsport car, finished third after Alexander Dunne, who was third on track, incurred a ten-second penalty for causing an accident.
Laurens van Hoepen, pole-sitter for Sunday’s race, finished fourth in a Trident, while Emmo Fittipaldi, the Brazilian who competes for AIX Racing, achieved his best result of the year to finish fifth, aided by another penalty against Nikola Tsolov, who also had ten seconds added to his final race time.
Dino Beganvic crossed the finish line in sixth place in a DAMS car, followed by Rafael Câmara in seventh with Invicta Racing after starting 12th and dropping to 15th at the start. The points-scoring zone also included Roman Bilinski of DAMS. Colton Herta of Hitech staged a comeback to finish ninth, followed by Oliver Goethe of MP Motorsport.
The race featured an incident on lap ten when John Bennett spun with a Trident car after being bumped by Martinius Stenshorne, who was contesting a position with Nikola Tsolov. The Safety Car was deployed moments later. On lap 18, Joshua Durksen, who had a penalty for contact with Noel León, spun after being touched by Alexander Dunne, causing another neutralization.
On lap 25, Rafael Villagómez, who was in third place, hit the Van Amersfoort Racing car against the wall and retired, triggering a Virtual Safety Car. At the same moment, Cian Shields collided with Nico Varrone’s car, which spun as a result of the contact.
The race that closes the third round of the 2026 Formula 2 season will be held on Sunday (24), starting at 1:00 p.m.
