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Leon Beats Dunne to Claim Maiden Formula 2 Pole in Austria
Noel Leon set an unbeatable mid-session benchmark at the Red Bull Ring to take his first Formula 2 pole position, leading Alex Dunne and Campos Racing team-mate Nikola Tsolov in Austria.
By Michael de Vries - 2026-06-26T14:51:40.000Z - 3 min read
Noel Leon claimed his maiden Formula 2 pole position at the Red Bull Ring, delivering a decisive lap midway through Friday's qualifying session in Austria. Driving for Campos Racing, the Mexican racer produced an unbeatable benchmark to lead the 22-car grid in Spielberg, edging out Rodin Motorsport's Alex Dunne in a closely fought session.
Early track action indicated strong pace from Campos Racing, with Leon initially pacing the session ahead of his team-mate Nikola Tsolov. That early one-two order held until the closing moments of the first runs, when drivers began ducking into the pit lane for fresh rubber ahead of the final qualifying attempts.
Before the majority of the field pitted for new tyres, Invicta Racing's Rafael Camara briefly disrupted Campos Racing's dominance. The Brazilian driver put together a quick lap to take provisional pole position, demoting Leon and Tsolov down the order. However, Camara's time at the top of the leaderboard proved brief as track evolution and strategic track positioning reshuffled the standings.
Choosing to stay out on circuit rather than heading into the pits immediately, Leon responded on his second flying lap of the run. Stopping the clock at 1:15.544, the Campos driver reclaimed top spot with a lap that no rival could match for the remainder of the session. Dunne came closest to matching the benchmark, moving onto the front row with a lap just 0.129 seconds off Leon's pace.
Tsolov secured third place to cap a strong session for Campos Racing, ending up 0.186 seconds behind his team-mate. The Bulgarian driver will share the second row of the grid with championship leader Gabriele Minì, who kept his MP Motorsport car consistently near the front of the timing screens before settling into fourth position, 0.225 seconds adrift of pole.
After briefly occupying provisional pole, Camara slipped down to fifth overall for Invicta Racing, finishing 0.240 seconds off the pace. ART Grand Prix driver Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak finished right behind in sixth, followed by MP Motorsport's Oliver Goethe in seventh and Van Amersfoort Racing's Rafael Villagomez in eighth. John Bennett took ninth for Trident, 0.352 seconds back from the benchmark.
Sebastian Montoya rounded out the top ten for Prema Racing, finishing 0.411 seconds behind Leon. That result gives the Colombian driver reverse-grid pole position for Saturday afternoon's Sprint Race, which is set to start at 14:15 local time. Behind Montoya, Joshua Dürksen finished 11th for Invicta ahead of ART Grand Prix's Kush Maini.
DAMS team-mates Roman Bilinski and Dino Beganovic qualified 13th and 14th respectively, ahead of Prema's Mari Boya and Trident's Laurens Van Hoepen. The lower half of the order was completed by Ritomo Miyata, Emerson Fittipaldi Jr., Cian Shields, Colton Herta, Martinius Stenshorne, and Nicolas Varrone, with the entire 22-car grid separated by just over 1.2 seconds around the Red Bull Ring.