Kush Maini secured his first victory of the 2026 FIA Formula 2 campaign in the Barcelona Sprint Race. He launched into the lead from the start and maintained a significant advantage throughout the race. MP Motorsport’s Gabriele Minì finished in second place after a battle with Nikola Tsolov, who rounded out the podium for Campos Racing.
Maini, starting from P2, achieved a strong launch to take the lead in the initial meters, with reverse grid polesitter Noel León settling in behind him. Tsolov, Maini’s teammate, made a good start from P5 on the grid to move into third position by Turn 1.
Early in the race, contact occurred between Martinius Stenshorne and Joshua Duerksen at the exit of Turn 10. This incident resulted in front wing damage for the Rodin Motorsport driver and sent the Invicta Racing driver through the gravel, dropping him to last. Stenshorne later received a 10-second time penalty for causing the collision.
On Lap 2, Minì executed a move on Colton Herta at Turn 3, advancing to fourth place. Tsolov then overtook his teammate León at the first corner on Lap 3, as Maini extended his lead beyond the one-second mark. Maini continued to build his advantage, setting the fastest time of the race on Lap 4 and establishing a lead of 3.5 seconds over Tsolov.
Minì continued his progress, moving past León on Lap 6 to claim third position. By Lap 10, Tsolov began to reduce Maini’s lead, bringing it down to 3.2 seconds after Maini had previously extended it beyond four seconds. Minì remained close behind Tsolov, trailing by approximately half a second on Lap 12.
On Lap 14, Herta advanced to P4 with a DRS pass at Turn 1 after following León for several laps. Meanwhile, Rafael Câmara, trailing Rafael Villagómez, attempted a move at Turn 1, but Villagómez defended his position. Villagómez later received a five-second time penalty for exceeding track limits.
Câmara took sixth position on Lap 17. Dino Beganovic then used DRS to move into seventh at the first corner on Lap 18. A lap later, Alexander Dunne made a similar overtake to secure P8. Further back, Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak defended P10 from Nico Varrone.
In the fight for the podium, Maini re-established a comfortable lead of 5.1 seconds over Tsolov. Minì remained in DRS range of Tsolov, applying pressure. On Lap 22, Tsolov was forced to defend from Minì, and both drivers began to lose time to Herta, who was closing in.
Minì successfully passed Tsolov for second on Lap 23 at Turn 1, though there was contact that resulted in Tsolov losing a front wing endplate. Herta then overtook Tsolov for fourth at Turn 7, setting his sights on Minì. Herta reduced the gap to Minì to 0.4 seconds by the penultimate lap.
On the final lap, Minì defended his position, and Herta’s charge ended with a lock-up at Turn 5, causing him to run through the gravel and drop to fifth. Maini secured a comfortable victory by over seven seconds. Minì finished second, and Tsolov held on to claim third place.
León finished fourth, followed by Herta, Câmara, Beganovic, and Dunne, who completed the points-scoring positions. Minì currently leads the Drivers’ Championship with 71 points, ahead of Tsolov. León moved to third in the standings with 50 points. Campos Racing leads the Teams’ Standings with 118 points.
The next event is the FIA Formula 2 Feature Race, scheduled for Sunday morning at 11:25 local time.
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Source: fiaformula2.com
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