The FIA Formula 2 championship delivered a dramatic weekend of action during its first visit to Canada’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.
We saw two new winners in Campos’ Noel León and Rodin’s Martinius Stenshorne, while both races were packed with incident.
Who are this weekend’s ‘winners and losers’?
Winner: Martinius Stenshorne
The Norwegian is a winner in every sense of the word, having scored his maiden F2 win in the Feature Race. But Stenshorne’s weekend was about more than his clean and victorious drive on Sunday.
He qualified well, and benefited from grid penalties for team mate Alex Dunne and Invicta’s Rafael Câmara to start third on Sunday.
He demonstrated his speed and knack for staying mostly clear of trouble during a weekend strewn with incidents, as he collected third place in Saturday’s Sprint Race – even though he narrowly avoided heavy damage when hit by Nikola Tsolov, which pushed him into John Bennett’s Trident.
The drive on Sunday was classy and fully deserving of the victory as others got tangled up in costly incidents.
Podium secured. Poutine secured too. ??
Martinius, Alex and Gabri are living the Canadian dream ?#F2 #CanadianGP pic.twitter.com/RBpywxivGp
— Formula 2 (@Formula2) May 24, 2026
Loser: Laurens Van Hoepen, John Bennett & Trident
Trident have made real progress this season, after a dismal 2025, but what could have been a weekend that lived long in the memory turned into the stuff of nightmares.
It all started so well when Dutchman Van Hoepen took a dramatic pole position, and the team could have been celebrating John Bennett’s first points of the season on Saturday, but he was hit into retirement by a combination of Tsolov and Stenshorne.
Van Hoepen did finish that race in fourth, and was leading from pole on Sunday when he spectacularly crashed out at the Wall of Champions on Lap 5. And to make matters worse, Bennett was again eliminated when an unsafe release saw him collide in the pit lane with former team mate, Rafael Villagomez.
What should have been a fruitful weekend for the Italian team has seen them walk away with scraps.
INTO THE WALL OF CHAMPIONS ?
The incident that sent pole-sitter Laurens van Hoepen crashing out of the lead in our Montreal Feature Race ?#F2 #CanadianGP pic.twitter.com/O6ISv1S3Po
— Formula 2 (@Formula2) May 24, 2026
Winner: Alex Dunne & Rodin
There is perhaps an alternate universe where Rodin have won all of 2026’s Feature Race, because they’ve had the speed to do so.
But driver mistakes, team errors and unfortunate collisions left the team without any Feature Race points.
It’s a similar story for Dunne, who admits his own mistakes are costing him too many points. But the pair bounced back on Sunday, securing a 1-2 finish with Stenshorne the victor.
Dunne, who does have two Sprint Race podiums, will be hoping this result can provide a platform for him to mount a title challenge, and he will be expecting that because Rodin look like the team to beat on pure pace at the moment.
Loser: Nikola Tsolov
The Bulgarian had an up and down weekend – but it’s ended with him scoring no points at all. He had a scruffy Sprint Race, making contact with Stenshorne and earning himself a penalty.
He was promoted to the Feature Race front row after the penalties for Dunne and Câmara and led after Van Hoepen’s crash. But that’s also where his weekend really started to unravel.
Needing to make progress past drivers who hadn’t stopped, he lost out to eventual winner Stenshorne whist trying to pass Mari Boya’s PREMA and was then bumped into a spin by Kush Maini in the ART.
LAP 14/39
CONTACT BETWEEN MAINI AND TSOLOV ?
The Bulgarian continues on and rejoins in P16#F2 #CanadianGP pic.twitter.com/6YThHJmCxZ
— Formula 2 (@Formula2) May 24, 2026
And while he did recover through the rest of the carnage to finish fourth, he was handed a post-race 10-second time penalty by the Stewards for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, dropping him to 12th.
His position at the top of the championship might be gone for now, but Tsolov will believe that he can quickly regain momentum and be among the leading contenders again.
Winner: Gabrielle Mini
The new championship leader will be the first to admit he and MP were not the fastest combination in Canada – but they are almost certainly the most opportunistic.
Mini capitalised on the misfortunes of others throughout the weekend to bag two podium finishes – second in Saturday’s Sprint Race and third in the Feature on Sunday.
DOUBLE PODIUM ??
Both Dunne and Minì finish P2 and P3 respectively in today's Formula 2 Feature race ? pic.twitter.com/PyHl49Zimy
— BWT Alpine Formula One Team (@AlpineF1Team) May 24, 2026
He said after Sunday’s race that it had been all about staying out of trouble and doing that has allowed him to establish a healthy 21-point advantage at the top of the Drivers’ Standings.
The Italian knows it will be a challenge to stay there, but weekends like this will make him very hard to catch.
Loser: Invicta
This was not a weekend you’d have expected from the reigning Teams’ Champions, not because they weren’t fast, they could have challenged for wins in both races. But it was scruffy from their drivers, who picked up penalties and were involved in incidents.
Brazil’s Câmara was handed a grid drop for impeding, Durksen was twice penalised for causing collisions, and Câmara spun himself out of contention with a clumsy attempted move on Roman Bilinski’s DAMS.
It meant the team walked away with just two points from the weekend, after the Brazilian finished seventh in the Sprint Race.
Messy weekends happen in motor racing, it’s just how it is, but James Robinson will be rallying his troops ahead of the trip to Monaco to regroup and ensure that it’s not repeated and the team bounces back stronger.
It wasn’t to be today ?
Great race pace shown and plenty of potential to take into the remainder of the season!#F2 #Formula2 #InvincibleInSpirit #CanadianGP pic.twitter.com/PoZ3XsPcAJ
— Invicta Racing (@InvictaRacing) May 24, 2026
Image Credit – Formula Motorsport Limited via Getty
