After a week off from racing, the MP Motorsport team returned for round seven of the 2026 Formula 2 season at the historic Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.
With a solid podium finish for Gabriele Minì at Silverstone, the team entered the weekend with Gabriele in a 17-point deficit from the leader of the drivers' championship, Nikola Tsolov. Meanwhile, the team sat in P2 of the teams' championship. The weekend ahead provided the team the opportunity to gain more points and push for higher performance.
The MP Motorsport drivers settled on track in Spa for the first time in 2026 for Formula 2’s free practice session.
Both drivers felt comfortable with the car coming into the session, with only Oliver's car having some minor adjustments.
Gabriele set his fastest time in the free practice session to secure P10 of the session with a 1:59.731. He set a total of 15 laps, re-familiarised himself with the track and secured a 0.804-second gap to the fastest driver of the session, Nikola Tsolov.
With a 0.727-second gap to his teammate, Oliver completed a total of 13 laps around the circuit, setting a fastest lap of 2:00.458 to place P18 in the session.
With a solid performance in the practice session, there was room for improvement before the qualifying session that was to take place later that day. With that came time for Gabriele to get on track and for Oliver to improve on his track experience.
Free Practice Results:
With a clear sky and no sign of rain, the Formula 2 qualifying session went ahead to determine the placements for the races for the weekend ahead.
Before the session could even get fully started, Noel León spun, resulting in a red flag almost 6 minutes into the session.
When the flags went green, both Oliver and Gabriele had 21 minutes of active qualifying time to secure their race start positions, and coming off free practice, both were confident they could do well.
After their out lap, Oliver was able to climb up to P4 and Gabriele P7, both of which maintained their times for the majority of the session.
With the super soft tyre, the compound mainly provided drivers one flying lap of optimum conditions; therefore, securing a good lap time on a flying lap was key to the session.
With less than four and a half minutes left, Laurens van Hoepen was stopped at the start, resulting in an initial double waved yellow, then another red flag.
By the time the session went green again, the lap was the driest it had been the entire session, yet with the time left there was only time for one final lap, giving all drivers one final chance to make their climb up the leaderboard.
This red flag interfered significantly with the team's capability to secure a good qualifying position. With many drivers producing fast times, alongside the stress and position of the team at the furthest grid box, both Oliver and Gabriele were not able to produce a fast enough flying lap, with Oliver ending up qualifying in P14 and Gabriele P17.
An unfortunate end to a strong start of a session; with the initial pace exhibited, the drivers could make up places lost in the races ahead.
Qualifying Results:
To start with the first race on Saturday at Spa, the MP Motorsport drivers started in the midfield with Oliver in P13 and Gabriele in P14 for the sprint race.
On the first launch across the line, Gabriele soared ahead of his teammate and Emerson Fittipaldi Jr. to take P12. Gabriele held onto that position until lap 4, where Oliver overtook him to take P12. On the following lap, Nicolás Varrone was overtaken by both Oliver and Gabriele, promoting both drivers sequentially to P11 and P10.
Lap 6 saw the safety car come out after Cian Shields crashed out, with the race going green for lap 8. On the restart, Oliver made a move on Tasanapol Inthrapuvasak to take P10, starting his climb into the points.
With a great initial start, Gabriele had a technical issue in the closing half of the race, which forced him to pit and retire on lap 11, leaving only Oliver on track to score any points for the team.
Up ahead on lap 14, John Bennett spun out, triggering a yellow flag and safety car, but not before Oliver could move up to take P9. That safety car persisted until one final lap remained; on that final home stretch, Sebastian Montoya up ahead fell down the leaderboard, enabling Oliver to make one final overtake that put him in the final point-scoring position for the sprint race, where he came home in P8.
Sprint Race Results:
To conclude the Formula 2 weekend at Spa, both MP Motorsport drivers started near the back of the grid for the feature race, although grid penalties for some of their rivals allowed them to each move up a couple of spots, with Oliver in P13 and Gabriele in P14.
After a great launch from both drivers, Gabriele was ahead of Oliver. The opening lap quickly saw chaos; In an incident with Ritomo Miyata that resulted in Oliver’s car turning off, he was unable to restart it, ending his race prematurely.
After a great start and a strong launch, making up positions. Gabriele made contact with Roman Bilinski at T1, which resulted in his car turning off. Not all was lost, as Gabriele used the downhill of the track to restart the car and keep going to continue the race. Although he dropped to the back of the grid in P20, his move saved the team from a double DNF.
The safety car was called out for the incidents on lap 1, with the race restarting on lap 3. Beginning his climb from the back of the grid, on the restart Gabriele moved up to P19, overtaking Mari Boya. On the following lap, Gabriele overtook Cian Shields, Noel León and Colton Herta to take P16, but on that lap it was announced he would receive a 5-second penalty for his earlier collision with Roman Bilinski.
With Gabriele’s super soft tyre compound beginning to fall off, lap 5 saw Noel León overtake him for P17, and on the following lap, he fell back further to P19. The team made the call to box, and on lap 7, Gabriele pitted for the medium tyre and served his penalty - which proved to be crucial to the rest of his race.
Lap 8 ended with a Red Flag when Laurens van Hoepen crashed out; this promoted Gabriele to P18. As most of the grid had yet to pit, Gabriele's earlier pit stop was key to his progression up the leaderboard
Once the race was green-flagged, the race was under time constraints, allowing 24 minutes of racing and a rolling start.
Lap 10 saw Martinius Stenshorne and Sebastian Montoya pit, bringing Gabriele up to P16; before the end of the lap, Gabriele overtook Colton Herta for P15.
Continuing his great recovery drive, Gabriele on lap 11 committed an incredible move on the outside of Rafael Villagómez to climb up to P14. In more chaos, Emerson Fittipaldi Jr. was in the gravel, promoting Gabriele to P13 initially, but he then made a move on Cian Shields to take P12 as well.
Many of the final mandatory pit stops from the other teams were done on lap 13. This was due to the safety car out for the AIX car of Emerson Fittipaldi Jr, out at Malmédy. This promoted Gabriele to P6.
The final five minutes saw many drivers ahead, such as Alex Dunne and Noel León, receiving 5-second penalties for track limits. All the while, Gabriele was challenging his championship rival Nikola Tsolov for provisional P3.
Alex Dunne was able to clear the 5-second gap to Gabriele on the final lap, resulting in Gabriele achieving a point-scoring finish of P5. In a race that seemed lost, Gabriele’s incredible recovery drive redeemed the incident on the opening lap.
Feature Race Results:
A solid weekend despite setbacks; both Oliver and Gabriele committed great drives of their own to make up for the unfortunate events.
With Gabriele’s technical issue inflicting a DNF in the Sprint Race, Oliver was able to hold the race on his own to climb up five positions and into P8 to score points for the team.
Continuing, after Oliver's lap 1 DNF and a first lap incident for Gabriele that pushed him to the back of the grid, Gabriele executed a phenomenal recovery drive to P5 that almost saw him battling for a podium finish.
Moving on to yet another weekend of racing, the team continue for Round 8 at the Hungaroring.
Driver Standings After Round 7:
Team Standings After Round 7:
