After a double podium-finishing weekend for Gabriele in Barcelona, MP Motorsport entered round 6 of the 2026 Formula 2 season at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria, with positivity. With success in the feature race last year as well as sitting P1 in the drivers' standings with Gabriele and P3 in the constructors' championship, the weekend ahead proposed the potential for points, podiums and success to rise in the championship places.
In a return to racing for round 6 of the Formula 2 season, the MP Motorsport team was confident for the weekend ahead, with the track’s high-speed corners and long straights accompanying the strengths of the car.
Gabriele was on track swiftly for free practice, logging laps that led the start of the session.
In a fantastic start, Oliver shot up the places, logging a fastest lap early on in the session and primarily holding onto that lead until the conclusion of the session, finishing in P1 with a time of 1:16.978.
Not too far off, Gabriele completed 21 laps of the circuit in free practice, logging his fastest lap of 1:17.384; he placed P6 in the session.
Both Oliver and Gabriele came in hot with great pace in the session. The team was especially confident for the weekend ahead, with Oliver putting himself fastest of the session.
With his teammate performing so well in the practice, Gabriele was motivated further to improve his time for the weekend ahead, with both drivers ready for qualifying on the following day.
Free Practice Results:
In the afternoon at Spielberg, the drivers took part in qualifying on a hot track.
Oliver set the pace initially with the fastest lap time early on in the session.
Later on, Gabriele caught up to his teammate, flying to third early on in the qualifying session.
With less than 10 minutes to go, Oliver flew up to P2 momentarily. Although by the end of the session, Oliver was losing some potential time in sectors 1 and 3, which overall impacted his fastest lap time of 1:15.857 which secured him P7. This put him solidly in the midfield with plenty of opportunity to climb up the grid during the race.
Gabriele was able to find a rhythm and maximise the conditions to push in the final closing laps of qualifying, locking in P4 with a fastest time of 1:15.769.
Overall, the pace from practice continued to improve, displaying plenty of promise for the sprint and feature race ahead with both drivers qualifying within the top ten.
Qualifying Results:
On a sunny Saturday, the drivers took to the track for the sprint race, with Oliver starting in P4 and Gabriele in P7. Coming off the line, the MP Motorsport drivers maintained their grid position. Still, unfortunately, not long after the launch, Oliver was out after becoming collateral in an incident at T3 involving multiple drivers, specifically Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak hit Oliver's rear forcing him out of the race.
As a result of the incident, a safety car was deployed, and it remained out until lap 3. On the restart, Gabriele was up to P4, only to initially be overtaken by Rafael Câmara early on lap 4 before both were overtaken by Alex Dunne, resulting in Gabriele falling to P6.
After lap 4, Gabriele spent the first half of the race cruising in P6. Only on lap 15 did he begin to experience some pressure from Roman Bilinski behind him. By lap 18, even with Roman Bilinski behind him, Gabriele was closing in on Rafael Câmara in P5.
On lap 21, Colton Herta was out of the race, instigating a virtual safety car, which was out for a lap before coming in. On the restart, Gabriele was able to pull away from Roman Bilinski and be immediately on the back of Rafael Câmara. On lap 22, Gabriele was able to make a move on the inside on Rafael Câmara, not once, but twice, claiming P5 and maintaining the position to the flags.
Sprint Race Results:
Ending round 6 of the Formula 2 weekend at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, the feature race took place with Gabriele on the second row in P4 and Oliver in P7.
On the opening start, Gabriele launched ahead of Alex Dunne, taking P3, while Oliver rocketed to P5. After a collision between Rafael Villagómez and Sebastian Montoya on the opening lap, a safety car was called out, which came in at the end of lap 4.
Both MP Motorsport drivers maintained their positions on the restart. Lap 6 instigated the start of the first round of early pit stops, with Noel León pitting, bringing Oliver up to P6. The following lap, Alex Dunne boxed, promoting Oliver further to P3. On lap 8, the race leader, Nikola Tsolov, pitted, putting Gabriele in P1 and Oliver in P2.
At the end of lap 9, Gabriele pitted for soft tyres, promoting Oliver to be the provisional leader on lap 10, who was on a separate strategy for the race.
Gabriele initially overcut Nikola Tsolov, coming out of the pit lane ahead of the Campos driver, but due to Gabriele being on cooler tyres, both Nikola Tsolov and Alex Dunne on warmer tyres were able to overtake him before the end of lap 10, causing Gabriele to fall to P11.
On lap 15, there was slight contact on T3 between Nikola Tsolov and Alex Dunne, which began the chain of events that began to bring Gabriele into the fight for positions.
Ten laps passed by and more drivers began to pit, bringing Gabriele up to P10. Closely after, Mari Boya’s car failed, resulting in a virtual safety car, which brought Gabriele up to P9, and Martinius Stenshorne pitted as well, further promoting Gabriele to P8 under the VSC.
The virtual safety car came in on lap 28; immediately, with DRS, Gabriele was able to overtake Alex Dunne for P7. On lap 29, Laurens van Hoepen pitted, bringing Gabriele to P6. On the following lap, Colton Herta and Oliver pitted, further promoting Gabriele to P4.
Oliver came out of the pits on lap 30 in P10. The final two drivers leading who had not pitted, Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak and Nicolás Varrone, pitted, promoting Gabriele to P2 behind Nikola Tsolov and bringing Oliver up to P8.
Oliver was incredibly fast on the supersoft tyre, and secured the fastest lap time of the race of 1:18.384 on lap 31. Oliver had immense grip and pace in the final laps of the race, overtaking John Bennett for P7 on lap 22, then Noel León for P6 on lap 34.
On lap 36, Oliver was stuck behind a battle in front for P3 between Alex Dunne, Rafael Câmara and Joshua Dürksen. Making the most out of the situation, Oliver initially overtook Joshua Dürksen for P5 before eventually, in one move, overtaking both Alex Dunne and Rafael Câmara around the outside, snatching up P3 before the end of lap 36.
Both Gabriele and Oliver maintained their positions until the flag, coming home with a double MP Motorsport podium in P2 and P3.
Feature Race Results:
MP Motorsport left round 6 at the Red Bull Ring on a high with a 2-3 podium finish for Gabriele and Oliver. As a result, Gabriele extended his championship lead, and MP Motorsport moved up to P2 in the constructors' championship.
After weeks of misfortune, and even a sprint race of unfortunate circumstances, Oliver, in the feature race, executed an incredible redemption drive, exhibiting extraordinary pace and skill, bringing confidence and positivity to the next race weekend.
Moving forward and swapping track conditions, the following race is set to take place at the cooler conditioned high-speed Silverstone Circuit in the United Kingdom.
Driver Standings After Round 2:
Team Standings After Round 2:
