{"id":353,"date":"2026-07-25T10:45:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T13:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/?p=353"},"modified":"2026-07-25T11:11:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T14:11:28","slug":"gabriele-mini-wins-hungarian-f2-sprint-as-championship-leader-nikola-tsolov-retires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/f2\/gabriele-mini-wins-hungarian-f2-sprint-as-championship-leader-nikola-tsolov-retires\/","title":{"rendered":"Min\u00ec wins Hungarian F2 Sprint as championship leader Tsolov retires"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Gabriele Min\u00ec managed his tires brilliantly, possessed superior pace, and comfortably took victory in the F2 Sprint in Hungary. Championship leader Nikola Tsolov retired after colliding with Sebasti\u00e1n Montoya in the battle for second place<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a processional race where tire management proved crucial to performance, Gabriele Min\u00ec came out on top to claim his second victory of the Formula 2 season in the Hungarian Sprint on Saturday (25). Starting from second place, the Italian MP Motorsport driver passed Sebasti\u00e1n Montoya on Lap 17 and merely needed to manage his pace to be the first across the finish line. Rafael C\u00e2mara staged a strong recovery drive, climbing from ninth to fourth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Montoya and Min\u00ec engaged in a compelling battle throughout the sprint. Although the Prema driver pushed hard in the opening laps to build a 1.4s gap, the MP driver responded from Lap 4 onwards, aiming to stay within 1s of his rival to keep the DRS advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The race-winning pass finally arrived on Lap 17, when Min\u00ec gained a strong run down the main straight and capitalized on a lock-up by Montoya at Turn 1 to seize the lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the defining moment of the race occurred on Lap 21, when Nikola Tsolov made contact with Montoya at Turn 1, putting both cars out of the race and triggering the Virtual Safety Car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the final laps, there were no changes at the front, and Min\u00ec cruised unchallenged to victory. Dino Beganovic and Laurens Van Hoepen completed the podium, while Rafael C\u00e2mara, Kush Maini, Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, Noel Le\u00f3n, Joshua D\u00fcrksen, Martinius Stenshorne, and John Bennett rounded out the top 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Le\u00f3n, however, received a 5-second penalty for a Virtual Safety Car procedure infringement, dropping him to ninth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Formula 2 action resumes in Hungary on Sunday (26) with the Feature Race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
F2 start in Hungary (Photo: F2)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How the Hungarian F2 Sprint Unfolded<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Conditions were sunny at the Hungaroring, with ambient temperatures at 25 \u00b0C and track temperatures reaching 49 \u00b0C at lights-out. Benefiting from the inverted grid, Sebasti\u00e1n Montoya lined up on pole position with Gabriele Min\u00ec, second in the standings, right behind him. Rafael C\u00e2mara had qualified second on Friday and thus started from ninth on the sprint grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the race got underway, Montoya maintained the lead, with Min\u00ec holding second. Nikola Tsolov also made a strong start to climb to third, while C\u00e2mara jumped up to sixth. Sebasti\u00e1n set a blistering pace in the opening laps, opening up a 1.4s advantage by the end of Lap 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once Race Control enabled DRS, Min\u00ec picked up the pace and closed the gap to Montoya to 0.6s. However, the twisty nature of the Hungarian circuit made overtaking attempts extremely difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Realizing the difficulty of launching an attack, Min\u00ec settled into managing his pace, allowing Montoya to re-establish a 1.1s lead. Given the heavy tire degradation on the surface, the race settled into a rhythm as drivers began managing their compounds to preserve performance for the closing stages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Lap 11 onwards, Min\u00ec increased the pressure again, setting the fastest lap of the race with a 1:33.757. The gap to the leader dropped to 0.5s, though Montoya managed to hold position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After saving his tires, Min\u00ec carried far greater speed down the main straight on Lap 17. Montoya attempted to defend into Turn 1, but locked up on entry, relinquishing the lead. The scrap allowed Tsolov to close in; the Bulgarian launched a dive down the inside into Turn 1 on the following lap, but remained third.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Lap 21, Nikola placed his car on the inside of Sebasti\u00e1n down the main straight and dived into Turn 1 once more. Contact was inevitable, resulting in a double retirement and bringing out the Virtual Safety Car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The track cleared quickly, and when the green flags waved, positions remained static. With three laps remaining, Laurens Van Hoepen made a mistake, allowing C\u00e2mara to close in for a battle over third place. However, the pass could not be completed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Out front, Min\u00ec managed his gap through to the checkered flag, with Dino Beganovic and Van Hoepen completing the podium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Tsolov and Montoya collided on the first corner (Photo: F2)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

F2 2026: Hungarian GP Sprint Race Results at the Hungaroring<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
POS<\/td>Driver<\/td>Team<\/td>Diff<\/td><\/tr>
1<\/td>G MIN\u00cc<\/td>MP<\/td>28 laps<\/td><\/tr>
2<\/td>D BEGANOVIC<\/td>DAMS<\/td>+3.787<\/td><\/tr>
3<\/td>L VAN HOEPEN<\/td>Trident<\/td>+4.876<\/td><\/tr>
4<\/td>R C\u00c2MARA<\/td>Invicta<\/td>+7.021<\/td><\/tr>
5<\/td>K MAINI<\/td>ART<\/td>+12.836<\/td><\/tr>
6<\/td>T INTHRAPHUVASAK<\/td>ART<\/td>+15.646<\/td><\/tr>
7<\/td>J D\u00dcRKSEN<\/td>Invicta<\/td>+20.215<\/td><\/tr>
8<\/td>M STENSHORNE<\/td>Rodin<\/td>+20.830<\/td><\/tr>
9<\/td>N LE\u00d3N<\/td>Campos<\/td>+21.113<\/td><\/tr>
10<\/td>J BENNETT<\/td>Trident<\/td>+21.271<\/td><\/tr>
11<\/td>N VARRONE<\/td>Van Amersfoort<\/td>+23.003<\/td><\/tr>
12<\/td>O GOETHE<\/td>MP<\/td>+24.410<\/td><\/tr>
13<\/td>R MIYATA<\/td>Hitech<\/td>+24.907<\/td><\/tr>
14<\/td>C HERTA<\/td>Hitech<\/td>+25.786<\/td><\/tr>
15<\/td>R VILLAG\u00d3MEZ<\/td>Van Amersfoort<\/td>+31.436<\/td><\/tr>
16<\/td>C SHIELDS<\/td>AIX<\/td>+33.756<\/td><\/tr>
17<\/td>M BOYA<\/td>Prema<\/td>+34.633<\/td><\/tr>
18<\/td>R BILINSKI<\/td>DAMS<\/td>+38.808<\/td><\/tr>
19<\/td>A DUNNE<\/td>Rodin<\/td>+39.139<\/td><\/tr>
20<\/td>E FITTIPALDI<\/td>AIX<\/td>+1:03.775<\/td><\/tr>
21<\/td>N TSOLOV<\/td>Campos<\/td>NC<\/td><\/tr>
22<\/td>S MONTOYA<\/td>Prema<\/td>NC<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gabriele Min\u00ec managed his tires brilliantly, possessed superior pace, and comfortably took victory in the F2 Sprint in Hungary. Championship leader Nikola Tsolov retired after colliding with Sebasti\u00e1n Montoya in the battle for second place<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1020310674,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"42wp_featured_image_caption":"Gabriele Min\u00ec returned to the top step of the podium in F2","42wp_featured_image_credits":"F2","42wp_featured_video":"","42wp_featured_image_hidden":false,"42wp_authors_list":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[132,133,94,134],"42wp_author":[31],"class_list":["post-353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-f2","tag-gabriele-mini","tag-hungary","tag-nikola-tsolov","tag-sprint-race","42wp_author-bernardo-castro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":355,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353\/revisions\/355"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1020310674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353"},{"taxonomy":"42wp_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/42wp_author?post=353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}