Dino Beganovic clinched pole position for the 11th round of the 2026 Formula 2 season, held at the Madrid circuit in Spain. The DAMS driver seized the closing moments of one of the most turbulent qualifying sessions in Madrid to clock 1m44.331s, grabbing the top spot for the main race scheduled for Sunday, his second of the year in the feeder category.
Second place went to Alexander Dunne, a Rodin Motorsport driver who was edged by 0.230 seconds by Beganovic. As the vice-leader of the championship, Brazilian Rafael Câmara will start third on Sunday with Invicta Racing, sharing the second row with Martinius Stenshorne, who was fourth with the other Rodin car. The top five was rounded out by Nikola Tsolov, the championship leader and a Campos Racing driver.
Roman Bilinski, aboard a DAMS car, will start sixth, while Laurens van Hoepen of Trident and Noel León of Campos Racing will share the fourth row. Ritomo Miyata, aboard a Hitech, will line up ninth, and Emmo Fittipaldi, the Brazilian defending AIX Racing, finished tenth in qualifying and, thanks to the Sprint grid inversion, will start on pole for the weekend’s shorter race.
The session included red flags. With six minutes remaining, Kush Maini, who had been contending with the car, spun and hit the ART Grand Prix car, at the same moment Sebastian Montoya of Prema also struck the wall. After the car was recovered, the engine developed problems. With 18 minutes to go, Nico Varrone hit the Van Amersfoort into the wall, causing another stoppage.
The qualifying, initially scheduled for 10:00 a.m., Brasília time, was delayed by six minutes to permit the track clearance. The session that determined the starting grid also did not feature Thai driver Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, who crashed and saw his car burn in the free practice. ART Grand Prix is working to repair the car for the weekend’s races.
After qualifying, Formula 2 will run its two races in sequence. The Sprint is scheduled for 9:15 a.m. this Saturday (the 12th), while the main race has a start at 6:25 a.m. on Sunday.
