Martinius Stenshore clinched his first Formula 2 win after taking the chequered flag behind the safety car during the Feature at the 2026 F1 Canadian Grand Prix. After placing himself P5 on the starting grid in Qualifying on Friday, Stenshore was able to make his move up the grid in a chaotic race that ended with 7 retirements.
It was a race defined by constant disruptions from multiple Safety Cars, incidents, and penalties. The Rodin Motorsport driver brought the team its first 1-2 finish with teammate Alex Dunne finishing in P2 and championship leader Gabriele Minì rounding off the podium in P3.
Intense battle for P1 upon lights out
The weather at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve set the stage for an unpredictable Feature race. With reports of potential rain, Maini, Biliniski and Boya were the only three drivers on the grid to take a risk and opted to start on red-marked softs. The majority of the pack instead started on Supersoft tyres.
Upon lights out, the leading two drivers, Laurens Van Hoepen and Nikola Tsolov, battled it out for P1 with Tsolov claiming the lead with a stronger launch into Turn 1. However, Van Hoepen was quick to reclaim the lead at Turn 4.
The first Safety car was brought out by Van Hoepen at the start of lap 5 of the 2026 F2 Canadian GP Feature race. During his battle with Tsolov at the end of lap 4, with 0.3s separating them, the Dutch driver slipped over the curb, causing him to make contact with the wall of champions and forcing him to retire. Tsolov was able to avoid the Dutch driver and claimed the lead under the safety car. None of the cars had entered the pits for a tyre change.
At the restart, Fittipaldi made the first pit stop of the race, changing his soft tyres for the hard ones. Tsolov leads the pack with a second lead.
The second Safety Car of the race was called out by Flittipaldi, who locked up coming out of the pit lane and ran off into the first corner. This resulted in a chain reaction of drivers making their way into the pits for their first of two mandatory stops. Bilinski, Varrone, Herta, Maini and Boya were the only five who did not follow and continued on the softs.
Bennett stopped at the end of the pit lane after making contact with Villagómez.
Stenshorne takes the lead
Following the restart, Bilinski, who took the lead, had a strong launch and created a gap of more than 1s over Herta in P2.
Tsolov attempted to make a move to overtake Boya, but the Prema driver shut the door entering Turn 2. This, in turn, allowed Stenshorne to go through, giving him the virtual lead of the race. The Bulgarian driver then tried to reclaim the position from Stenshorne, but the Rodin Motorsport driver skillfully defended his position.
As the Norwegian driver made his way down the hairpin, he dove to the inside of Maini, taking P3. Tsolov followed but made contact with Maini, spinning off track in the final chicane, and fell out of the top 10 into P16. Bringing out the 3rd yellow flag of the race.
Câmara dove to the inside of Villagómez at Turn 1. Villagómez sustained front wing damage and was forced to retire the car as it made contact with Câmara. This marked the fourth retirement of the race, and the incident brought out a Virtual Safety Car.
Bilinski ran wide at the hairpin, allowing Stenshore to claim the lead into lap 20. As Bilinksi returned to track in P3, his teammate Beganovic was less than a second behind and soon overtook him.
A chain of Safety Cars
Câmara and Bilinski made contact at Turn 2, and the Brazillian spun off track. He returned towards the back of the field but struggled to keep the engine going. His Invicta eventually returned to the pit with the plan to retire. However, Câmara was later issued a 5-second penalty for the incident, and on lap 28, he returned to the track to serve it.
On lap 26, Beganovic was forced to pull over at the side of the road after facing a mechanical issue. The Swedish-Bosnian had been trying to troubleshoot the issue since early on in the race when his car started smoking. This brought out yet another Safety Car.
Under the safety car, the majority of the grid made their way into the pit lane for their second and final tyre change of the race.
Late race restart chaos
On lap 33 of the 2026 F2 Canadian Feature Race, Stenshorne had a strong restart and was more than a second clear of teammate Dunne in P2. The Irish driver used the slipstream to widen the gap between himself and Minì in P3.
The session continued running to time with less than 3 minutes to go.
With 2 minutes left in the race, the Safety car was once again brought out. Goethe and Miyata made contact at the hairpin, with Goethe spinning off the track while Miyata brought his Hitech into the pits with a damaged front wing.
Ending the race under the safety car
Stenshore took the checkered flag behind the safety car and claimed his maiden Formula 2 victory with teammate Dunne close behind. It was also a maiden one-two finish for Rodin Motorsport. Championship leader Minì clinched the final podium spot with a P3 finish.
The F2 Canadian Grand Prix is Stenshorne’s strongest weekend in the sport to date. The Norwegian driver had made his first podium appearance the day before during the Sprint.
Championship standings
Gabriele Minì’s P3 finish in the Feature at the Canadian Grand Prix means the driver leaves Montreal with the lead of the Formula 2 Drivers’ Championship. Tsolov now takes P2 in the Standings, 10 points behind, while Câmara rounds off the top 3 with 36 points.
Stenshore’s double podium finish in Montreal moves him up to P4 in the Standings with 35 points to his name.
The next round of the 2026 Formula 2 season will be back in Europe for the 2026 F2 Monaco Grand Prix.
