Formula 2 News: Noel León fastest on opening day of 2026 testing in Barcelona

Campos Racing’s Noel León started the 2026 FIA Formula 2 season on top with the fastest time on Day 1 of pre-season testing.

The Mexican driver set a 1:24.370 late on to take top spot ahead of Van Amersfoort Racing’s Nicolas Varrone and Joshua Duerksen of Invicta Racing in P3.

MORNING

With installation laps and systems checks out of the way, MP Motorsport set the pace as Oliver Goethe and Gabriele Minì logged the first proper running of the day. The former set a 1:26.040 to head the pack with less than half the morning segment to go.

The track then began to get busy with other teams heading out, and the timing screens filled up with more laps heading into the final hour. Martinius Stenshorne and Alexander Dunne made it a Rodin Motorsport 3-4 behind the MP duo, 0.2s down on the time to beat.

The first Red Flag then arrived with little under 55 minutes to go, with Nikola Tsolov coming to a stop at the end of the main straight. His Campos Racing car was recovered to the pitlane and running resumed with 55 minutes on the clock. There were several improvements in the final hour, as Minì went quickest of all on a 1:25.602 before the Rodin Motorsport teammates went 1-2 in the final minutes of the session.

Stenshorne’s 1:25.437 left him fastest of all in the morning, 0.015s ahead of Dunne who went in front of Minì with his final flying lap. Tsolov followed in fourth ahead of Campos teammate Noel León, with Goethe sixth in the end. Dino Beganovic wound up P7 for DAMS Lucas Oil ahead of Hitech’s Ritomo Miyata, PREMA Racing’s Mari Boya and Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak in P10 for ART Grand Prix.

AFTERNOON

The afternoon session began with Stenshorne picking up from where he left off, quickly going fastest with a 1:25.712 to lead teammate Dunne once more, this time by 0.170s. Focus for the majority then switched to long running and race pace, and there were few overall improvements as the afternoon wore on.

Hitech were able to go third and sixth-fastest with Ritomo Miyata and Colton Herta respectively. A second Red Flag of the day arrived heading towards the final hour of running as Joshua Duerksen spun at Turn 3 and stopped on track. His car was recovered to the pitlane and action resumed with just under one hour remaining of the opening day.

Drivers returned to the track including Duerksen, who once fitted with the Soft compound Pirelli tyres, went to the top of the timing screens on a 1:25.274 for Invicta.With less than 15 minutes to go, León delivered a 1:24.370 to go to the top, 0.688s quicker than Nicolas Varrone, who went to P2 for Van Amersfoort Racing.

There was one final Red Flag as the session drew to a close, with Sébastian Montoya in the gravel at Turn 1. The session was not resumed, leaving León on top ahead of Varrone and Duerksen. Miyata was fourth for Hitech ahead of Stenshorne, Inthraphuvasak, Dunne, Rafael Câmara, Tsolov and Herta inside the top 10.

Day 1 Morning Session

Day 1 Afternoon Session

Car 20 – all lap times deleted, car found underweight