Duerksen wins F2’s season-opening sprint race in Melbourne

Photo: Quinn Rooney / LAT Images

Invicta Racing’s Joshua Duerksen scored his fifth Formula 2 victory in the season-opening sprint race in Melbourne.

Duerksen took the lead on lap two and controlled the race before a safety car period that left five laps of racing to go. He built a lead of 2.1 seconds over Campos Racing’s debuting Noel Leon following that, while Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Dunne claimed third on the final lap.

The driver who started on reversed-grid pole was ART Grand Prix’s Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, who had one weekend of F2 experience from 2025, and he led into the race’s opening corner ahead of MP Motorsport’s Oliver Goethe, who had dived past Duerksen.

But he quickly reclaimed the place by sweeping around the outside of Goethe into turn nine, and repeated the move on Inthraphuvasak with the help of DRS to take the lead on the next tour.

Goethe, meanwhile, spun down the order after slipping to fourth behind ART GP’s Kush Maini, who soon faced pressure from Campos’s Nikola Tsolov. Reigning FIA Formula 3 champion Rafael Camara tried to snatch third with a double overtake on the pair into turn 11, but ran wide and dropped back behind Maini before losing a further place to Leon.

Maini was demoted to fourth by Leon and was then shuffled back further by Invicta’s Camara, Rodin’s Martinius Stenshorne and Dunne. Tsolov also tried to overtake Maini into turn nine but went off, and then fell further down the order when a collision with Hitech GP’s Colton Herta led to him spinning.

The safety car was deployed on lap 15 after Prema’s Mari Boya crashed for the second time of the weekend, and racing resumed with five laps to go. Duerksen quickly pulled clear once more, while Inthraphuvasak flats-potted his tyres before the restart and then slipped into the clutches of Leon, who eventually claimed second.

Inthraphuvasak held third until the final lap, but ran wide and lost out to Dunne while defending into turn three. Stenshorne also swept by, but a five-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage while battling with Tsolov earlier in the race demoted him to 10th at the chequered flag – allowing Inthraphuvasak to regain fourth.

Hitech’s Ritomo Mitaya climbed from 13th on the grid to fifth, and MP’s Gabriele Mini made up 15 spots to finish sixth. Trident’s Laurens van Hoepen was seventh ahead of DAMS driver Roman Bilinski, while Prema’s Sebastian Montoya just missed out on the points in ninth after switching to supersoft tyres during the safety car period.

Camara faded in the closing stages and tumbled to 11th, and Herta was another to change tyres during the safety car period and ended his first F2 race in 16th.

Race results (23 laps)