Budapest Puts Campos on the Brink of F2 History as Title Race Reshapes

Round 9 in Budapest has left Formula 2's summer break feeling anything but restful. Three races, a reshaped championship order and Campos Racing now standing within one victory of rewriting the record books — the Hungaroring delivered consequences that will define the second half of the season.

Start with the headline number: nine. That is how many wins Campos have accumulated in 2026, a tally that already eclipses anything any other team has managed across a full season in recent memory. Noel León's Feature Race triumph on Sunday was the Spanish outfit's latest contribution to what is becoming a genuinely historic campaign, and it arrives with ten rounds still remaining. PREMA Racing's benchmark of ten victories in a single Formula 2 season — the all-time record — is now within reach after a single strong weekend.

León's win carried added weight given what preceded it. His Spa Feature Race victory was ultimately struck from the results following a post-race disqualification for a Sporting Regulations infringement, leaving a win he clearly felt he had earned wiped from the standings. Sunday's result, aided by a Virtual Safety Car that delivered a perfectly timed pit stop window, gave him something to celebrate properly. He was visibly emotional in the post-race interview, and the manner of the drive — a comeback through the field rather than a controlled lead — made it feel deserved rather than fortunate.

For championship leader Nikola Tsolov, Budapest was a weekend to absorb and move on from. The Bulgarian managed seventh in the Feature Race after contact with Sebastián Montoya ended his Sprint, and while he still leads the standings, his closest rivals did not waste the opportunity his difficulties created. Tsolov remains the driver who has contributed the lion's share of Campos' victories this year, but the weekend illustrated that the team's pace is not solely dependent on him.

Gabriele Minì was the sharpest beneficiary. A disappointing ninth in Qualifying left the MP Motorsport driver facing an uphill task through the Sprint, but from the front row on Saturday, he managed the race with real composure. Montoya led initially and drove aggressively to build a gap, but when tyre performance shifted in Minì's favour, the Alpine Academy driver did not hesitate. He forced a lock-up from the PREMA man and moved through to lead — and Tsolov's subsequent contact with Montoya only confirmed what the race had already begun to show.

Rafael Câmara did what he needed to do. Starting from second in the Feature Race while both Tsolov and Minì began further back, the Brazilian was well-positioned to take a larger haul but lost ground in the pit phase when León jumped him through the VSC window. Third place was still constructive — another podium to chip further into the gap to both Tsolov and Minì in the standings, and further evidence that Câmara is treating every race as a points accumulation exercise rather than waiting for the dominant result.

Alexander Dunne, by contrast, leaves Budapest in a more precarious position than his earlier season form suggested should be the case. A Qualifying problem outside his control dropped him down the order around a circuit that offers limited overtaking opportunities, and fighting back to eleventh on Sunday was a decent effort given the circumstances but a poor return in championship terms. He heads into the break 37 points behind Câmara and 59 adrift of Tsolov — not mathematically irrelevant, but the deficit is real and the three drivers ahead of him are currently making their opportunities count.

There were more positive stories further down the field. Laurens van Hoepen delivered exactly the kind of response Trident needed after a Spa weekend that ended with the Dutch driver in the barriers and the mechanics facing a significant rebuild before Budapest. Third in the Sprint and fourth in the Feature Race represented a meaningful turnaround, and his teammate John Bennett contributed points in the Feature Race for the first time since his Spielberg Sprint victory. Trident sit seventh in the Teams' Championship on 83 points, already in sight of surpassing both their 2022 points tally of 108 and their previous best overall finish of ninth.

Ten rounds remain when racing resumes, and the championship is genuinely open at the top. What Budapest clarified is that the battle is no longer Tsolov against a field — it is a four-driver contest with the top three having separated themselves from Dunne, who needs clean weekends and for others to make mistakes. Whether Campos can convert nine wins into ten, or more, is a separate question that the second half of the season will answer.

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