Nikola Tsolov extends championship lead as Joshua Durksen wins F2 sprint race in Belgium

The Paraguayan driver took his sixth win in Formula 2 and his first since the sprint race in Australia in the very first race of the season. He held on to take the victory a one lap dash to the finish, following a late safety car which was brought out for a late spin for John Bennett.

Durksen took the lead from Stenshorne on Lap 11. Stenshorne had taken the lead on Lap 2 from polesitter Sebastian Montoya, who endured a difficult ending to the race and could only finish ninth.

Dino Beganovic completed the podium ahead of championship leader Nikola Tsolov who took fourth with a daring last lap move on Montoya. Alex Dunne followed through for fifth ahead of tomorrow's pole sitter Rafael Camara. Roman Bilinski and Oliver Goethe completed the points paying positions.

Noel Leon had been set to start on pole for the sprint race, but was handed a pre-race penalty and did not finish the race. The safety car was also called out on Lap 6 after Cian Shields touched the gravel and put his AIX car into the barriers at Turn 9. Mini, second in the championship, reported a risk of a fire and would ultimately retire from the race.

Red Bull junior driver Tsolov continues to prove why he deserves a place in Formula 1, racing through to take fourth with a huge lunge down the inside of Montoya after the safety car restart.

His five points for fourth moves him up to 146 points, 22 ahead of his nearest challenger Gabriele Mini, who failed to win the race.

Tsolov will line up in fourth place for tomorrow's feature race, with Rafael Camara on pole ahead of Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak and Dunne.

The Bulgarian made history at Silverstone with a commanding victory and is now within touching distance of the Formula 2 single-season wins record, sitting just one victory shy of the seven-win benchmark jointly held by Charles Leclerc and George Russell.