Laurens van Hoepen secured pole position for the main race of the third round of the 2026 Formula 2 season. In the final moments of qualifying held this Friday (22) at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, in Montreal, Canada, the Trident driver recorded 1min21s422, taking the top spot for Sunday’s contest.
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The second position on the grid went to Nikola Tsolov, Campos Racing driver and championship leader, who benefited from penalties against Rafael Câmara and Alexander Dunne, both penalized with a three-place drop for impeding rivals during qualifying. Martinius Stenshorne, from Rodin, was third, followed by Joshua Durksen, fourth with Invicta. Penalized, Câmara took fifth on the grid after being the second-best in the session with the other Invicta car.
Dunne, third on track, starts sixth with Rodin, while John Bennett, with a Trident car, was the seventh-best qualifier and will share the fourth row with Noel León, from Campos Racing. Rafael Villagómez, from Van Amersfoort, was ninth best, while Gabriele Mini, from MP Motorsport, was tenth and starts ahead in the Sprint. Emmo Fittipaldi secured 11th place on the grid for both races with AIX Racing.
The session featured an incident just over nine minutes from the end. Oliver Goethe hit the wall and saw the right rear suspension of the MP Motorsport car break. After unsuccessfully trying to bring the car to the pits, the German stopped on track, forcing the red flag that interrupted qualifying.
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With five minutes remaining in the session, Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak crashed the ART Grand Prix car hard into the wall, causing another red flag. Hours later, at the same time Câmara and Dunne were penalized, the Thai driver and Goethe lost their best laps and will start 20th and 21st, respectively, in the two races.
The races will take place starting this Saturday (23), first with the Sprint, scheduled for 3:10 PM. The main race is set for Sunday at 1:05 PM.
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