{"id":65086,"date":"2026-02-17T18:56:46","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T18:56:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/?p=65086"},"modified":"2026-02-18T09:14:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T09:14:35","slug":"noel-leon-snatches-late-lead-on-day-1-of-f2-testing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/noel-leon-snatches-late-lead-on-day-1-of-f2-testing\/","title":{"rendered":"Noel Le\u00f3n snatches late lead on day 1 of F2 testing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-path-to-node=\"1\"><strong>Noel Le\u00f3n and Campos Racing ended the first day of 2026 FIA Formula 2 pre-season testing on a high note, with the Mexican driver posting a 1:24.370 late in the afternoon to claim the fastest overall time. His lap put him comfortably ahead of Nicolas Varrone of Van Amersfoort Racing and Invicta Racing\u2019s Joshua Duerksen, who occupied second and third respectively.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The morning session was characterized by the usual rhythm of installation laps and systems checks as teams shook down their machinery for the new campaign. MP Motorsport initially set the benchmark with Oliver Goethe and Gabriele Min\u00ec leading the way for much of the early running. However, the momentum was briefly halted by the day\u2019s first Red Flag when Nikola Tsolov came to a stop at the end of the main straight in his Campos car. Once the track was cleared, the final hour turned into a flurry of improvements. While Min\u00ec briefly moved back to the top, it was the Rodin Motorsport duo of Martinius Stenshorne and Alexander Dunne who stole the show in the closing stages. Stenshorne ended the morning fastest with a 1:25.437, just 0.015s ahead of his teammate.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-path-to-node=\"2\">When the afternoon session got underway, the focus shifted toward high-fuel simulations and race-pace evaluations. Stenshorne picked up right where he left off by setting a 1:25.712, but the leaderboard remained relatively static for several hours as drivers worked through their long-run programs. The quiet was eventually broken by a second Red Flag after Joshua Duerksen spun at Turn 3. Upon the restart, the Invicta driver switched to the Soft Pirelli compound and jumped to the top of the screens with a 1:25.274.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-path-to-node=\"3\">The final fifteen minutes saw a shift back to performance runs, providing Le\u00f3n with the opportunity to set his blistering benchmark that eclipsed the rest of the field by over six-tenths of a second. Varrone also made a late move to secure P2 before a final Red Flag, triggered by S\u00e9bastian Montoya sliding into the gravel at Turn 1, brought an early end to the day\u2019s action. With the session not resumed, the top ten was rounded out by Ritomo Miyata, Stenshorne, Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, Dunne, Rafael C\u00e2mara, Tsolov, and Colton Herta.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"3\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff;\"><strong>Day 1 Combined Standings (Top 10)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<table data-path-to-node=\"17\">\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Position<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>Driver<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>Team<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>Best Time<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,1,0,0\">1<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,1,1,0\"><b data-path-to-node=\"17,1,1,0\" data-index-in-node=\"0\">Noel Le\u00f3n<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,1,2,0\">Campos Racing<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,1,3,0\">1:24.370<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,2,0,0\">2<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,2,1,0\"><b data-path-to-node=\"17,2,1,0\" data-index-in-node=\"0\">Nicolas Varrone<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,2,2,0\">Van Amersfoort Racing<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,2,3,0\">1:25.058<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,3,0,0\">3<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,3,1,0\"><b data-path-to-node=\"17,3,1,0\" data-index-in-node=\"0\">Joshua Duerksen<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,3,2,0\">Invicta Racing<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,3,3,0\">1:25.274<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,4,0,0\">4<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,4,1,0\"><b data-path-to-node=\"17,4,1,0\" data-index-in-node=\"0\">Ritomo Miyata<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,4,2,0\">Hitech Pulse-Eight<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,4,3,0\">1:25.332<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,5,0,0\">5<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,5,1,0\"><b data-path-to-node=\"17,5,1,0\" data-index-in-node=\"0\">Martinius Stenshorne<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,5,2,0\">Rodin Motorsport<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,5,3,0\">1:25.437<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,6,0,0\">6<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,6,1,0\"><b data-path-to-node=\"17,6,1,0\" data-index-in-node=\"0\">T. Inthraphuvasak<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,6,2,0\">ART Grand Prix<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,6,3,0\">1:25.513<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,7,0,0\">7<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,7,1,0\"><b data-path-to-node=\"17,7,1,0\" data-index-in-node=\"0\">Alexander Dunne<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,7,2,0\">Rodin Motorsport<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,7,3,0\">1:25.552<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,8,0,0\">8<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,8,1,0\"><b data-path-to-node=\"17,8,1,0\" data-index-in-node=\"0\">Rafael C\u00e2mara<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,8,2,0\">Trident<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,8,3,0\">1:25.589<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,9,0,0\">9<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,9,1,0\"><b data-path-to-node=\"17,9,1,0\" data-index-in-node=\"0\">Nikola Tsolov<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,9,2,0\">Campos Racing<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,9,3,0\">1:25.602<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,10,0,0\">10<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,10,1,0\"><b data-path-to-node=\"17,10,1,0\" data-index-in-node=\"0\">Colton Herta<\/b><\/span><\/td>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,10,2,0\">Hitech Pulse-Eight<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span data-path-to-node=\"17,10,3,0\">1:25.641<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Noel Le\u00f3n and Campos Racing ended the first day of 2026 FIA Formula 2 pre-season testing on a high note, with the Mexican driver posting a 1:24.370 late in the afternoon to claim the fastest overall time. His lap put him comfortably ahead of Nicolas Varrone of Van Amersfoort Racing and Invicta Racing\u2019s Joshua Duerksen,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-65086","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula2"},"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65086"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65089,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65086\/revisions\/65089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insideracing.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}