SPRINT RACE: Maini takes commanding Barcelona win

Kush Maini claimed his first victory of the 2026 FIA Formula 2 campaign, launching into the lead at the start and driving off into the distance. MP Motorsport’s Gabriele Minì fought by early title rival Nikola Tsolov to take second place, with the Campos Racing driver rounding out the podium.

AS IT HAPPENED

Maini got a great launch from P2 to take the lead in the opening metres, with reverse grid polesitter Noel León slotting in behind. Campos teammate Tsolov made a great start to take third into Turn 1 having started from P5 on the grid.

There was contact at the exit of Turn 10 between Martinius Stenshorne and Joshua Duerksen that left the Rodin Motorsport driver with front wing damage and the Invicta Racing driver skating through the gravel down to last. Stenshorne was hit with a 10-second time penalty for causing the incident a few laps later.

Minì made a bold move on Lap 2, rounding Colton Herta at Turn 3 on the outside to go to fourth, continuing his early progress having started seventh.

With DRS enabled, Tsolov made the move on his teammate at the first corner at the start of Lap 3, with Maini escaping up the road and beyond the one-second window.

Maini’s lead was up to 3.5s over Tsolov as the Indian driver set the fastest time of the race on Lap 4.

Onto Lap 6 and with DRS, Minì got alongside León into Turn 1 and completed the move on exit to take third position from the Campos driver.

By Lap 10, the field had settled down and Tsolov began to eat back into the race leader’s buffer, getting it down to 3.2s after Maini had extended it over four seconds just a few laps prior.

While the Bulgarian was slowly catching the race leader, Minì in third place was just as quick if not quicker, and he was trailing the Campos by just half a second on Lap 12.

Lap 14 and after following León for several laps, Herta moved up to P4 with a DRS pass into Turn 1.

Rafael Câmara was trailing Rafael Villagómez at halfway, and an attempted move at Turn 1 was rebuffed by the Van Amersfoort Racing driver. This left the Invicta to take to the escape road, and the Brazilian filtered back on track behind.

The queue behind the Mexican driver in sixth ran down to 17th with each driver in DRS range of the car ahead, but Villagómez’s defensive drive took a hit when he was handed a five-second time penalty for exceeding track limits one too many times.

Lap 17 and Câmara got to the inside into Turn 1 and took sixth position to leave Dino Beganovic as the next in line to find a pass on the VAR ahead. Alexander Dunne ran behind the Swede and almost ran into the back of the DAMS after a big lock-up into Turn 4, just managing to avoid contact.

Onto Lap 18 and Beganovic made the move with DRS to take seventh position at the first corner. One lap later and Dunne made the same overtake to put himself to P8, while behind Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak had to defend P10 hard from Nico Varrone, able to stay ahead through the first few corners.

In the fight for the podium places, Maini had reestablished his comfortable advantage over Tsolov to lead by 5.1s, while Minì remained glued to the rear wing of the Campos driver and in DRS range.

Lap 22 and Tsolov was forced to defend into Turns 1 and 2 as Minì applied pressure. The pair were losing time to Herta behind who chased down the MP driver to get himself within DRS range of P3.

Tsolov’s defence of second ended on Lap 23 as Minì made the move at Turn 1, but not without contact that left the Bulgarian with a missing front wing endplate.

Herta got his elbows out into Turn 7 to take fourth from the Campos driver and set his sights on chasing Minì back down, who had already moved over a second clear of the pair in the first sector.

Entering the penultimate lap and the American had the gap back down to 0.4s across the line. Onto the final lap and Minì was able to cover the inside line to hold onto second. Herta’s charge came undone as drama struck for the Hitech driver with a lock-up into Turn 5 that left him running through the gravel, dropping him to fifth.

Nobody was catching Maini though, who claimed a comfortable victory by over seven seconds. Minì took P2 and Tsolov held his teammate off to take the final spot on the podium in third.

León was fourth with Herta, Câmara, Beganovic and Dunne completing the points places down to eighth.

KEY QUOTE – Kush Maini, ART Grand Prix

“Won it from P2 on the grid. ART have given me a great car, and they’ve been giving me a great car all year so they really deserve it, and I’m really glad to give them the win.”

THE CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

Gabriele Minì retains the lead of the Drivers’ Championship on 71 points, leading Nikola Tsolov in second who goes on to 68. Noel León moves up to third on 50 points, one ahead of Alexander Dunne and two points clear of Martinius Stenshorne, who rounds out the top five.

Campos Racing top the Teams’ Standings with 118 points, with Rodin Motorsport P2 on 97. MP Motorsport are third on 83 with Invicta Racing fourth on 63, and DAMS Lucas Oil fifth with 56.

UP NEXT

The FIA Formula 2 Feature Race is up next on Sunday morning, with lights out scheduled for 11:25 local time.