Noel Leon turned a chaotic Montreal sprint into the first Formula 2 win of his career, beating new championship leader Gabriele Mini after 28 bruising laps.

The Campos Racing driver won by 3.726 seconds from Mini, with Martinius Stenshorne completing the podium for Rodin Motorsport. It was Leon’s cleanest and most important F2 afternoon yet. It also moved him firmly into the early title conversation.

Mini finished second for MP Motorsport, but that was enough to take the championship lead. He now sits on 42 points, ahead of Rafael Camara on 36 and Nikola Tsolov on 35. Leon’s victory lifts him to 32, just 10 points off the top.

For a sprint race, this carried a lot of weight. Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve rewards confidence under braking, especially into the final chicane and the Turn 10 hairpin. It also punishes impatience. Several drivers found that out the hard way.

Mini started from pole and made the clean launch he needed. He pulled clear early while Joshua Duerksen forced his way past Leon and Rafael Villagomez for second.

Leon did not rush the response. He stayed close, kept the pressure on Duerksen, then made the place stick on lap eight. That move mattered. It put him back into clear air and gave him a direct path towards Mini.

Behind them, the race began to unravel.

Tsolov attacked Stenshorne down the inside, but contact sent the Norwegian into John Bennett. Bennett had earned a personal-best starting position, yet had no real chance once the incident unfolded. He was spun and left stranded at the Turn 10 hairpin, which brought out the safety car.

A safety car slows the field and bunches everyone together. It erases gaps, cools tyres and gives drivers a second launch when racing resumes. In Montreal, with heavy braking zones and walls close by, it can completely change a sprint.

At the restart, Mini led Leon and Duerksen. But Duerksen’s afternoon was already compromised. Race control gave him a five-second penalty for his forceful moves at the start.

That kind of penalty gets added to a driver’s race time after the flag. In practice, it means the driver must either pull a gap or lose positions in the final classification. Duerksen could do neither.

Leon and Mini escaped up front, while Duerksen had to defend. Villagomez passed him into Turn 9, then Duerksen made a mistake at the hairpin. Stenshorne and Tsolov both gained from it.

The Invicta driver’s race then collapsed completely when Alex Dunne hit trouble with him at the hairpin. Duerksen spun, the safety car returned, and frustration was clear as the Rodin car passed the stranded Invicta machine.

Before that second neutralisation, Leon had made the decisive move of the race.

He attacked Mini into the final chicane, one of Montreal’s most demanding braking zones. He went down the inside, took the lead, and then held Mini off into Turn 1.

It was a high-pressure pass, but it was also well judged. Leon did not only get ahead. He made sure Mini could not immediately reclaim the place at the next corner.

When the safety car pulled in with seven laps remaining, Leon had control. His restart was excellent. By the second corner, he had already built a gap of 0.8 seconds.

That mattered because it kept Mini out of immediate attacking range. In F2, as in F1, dirty air can make following harder, even when the tyres are similar. A clean restart can decide whether a leader controls the rhythm or spends the lap defending.

Mini struggled to keep close, and the race behind him kept changing through penalties.

Dunne received a 10-second penalty for the clash with Duerksen. Tsolov also received a 10-second penalty for the earlier incident involving Stenshorne and Bennett. Both penalties dropped the drivers out of the points.

Those calls changed the podium and the points picture. Dunne later passed Mini on track, but his penalty meant the move carried no scoring reward. Tsolov also lost a chance to strengthen his title position.

With five laps left, Stenshorne put pressure on Villagomez for third. He was forced off at Turn 1, but the podium place came his way soon after when Villagomez hit the wall at Turn 3.

That was another reminder of Montreal’s narrow margin. The track invites attacks, but a small error can end the race quickly.

There was still one more interruption. Nico Varrone had earlier fallen to the back after a stop-and-go penalty for being out of position at the safety car line. Late on, he was spun by Cian Shields after Mari Boya slowed at the exit of the Turn 9 hairpin.

Race control used a virtual safety car with two laps left. Under a virtual safety car, drivers must slow to a set pace, but the field does not bunch up in the same way as under a full safety car.

Leon handled that restart just as well as the earlier one. He timed the return to racing perfectly and began the final lap 3.8 seconds clear of Mini.

From there, the win was secure. Leon crossed the line in 43m36.869s, taking a breakthrough victory for Campos and the strongest result of his F2 season so far.

Mini’s second place may have lacked the drama of Leon’s win, but it could prove just as important over a full campaign. Sprint races offer fewer points than feature races, yet they often define momentum in F2. Mini left Montreal with the championship lead, and that is the headline his rivals will notice.

Stenshorne’s third place gave Rodin a podium on a day when Dunne’s penalty cost the team badly. Laurens van Hoepen continued Trident’s strong Montreal pace in fourth, while AIX Racing’s Emerson Fittipaldi took fifth, his best F2 finish so far.

Dino Beganovic finished sixth for DAMS. Camara took seventh and added useful points despite losing the championship lead. Roman Bilinski completed the scorers in eighth.

Colton Herta finished ninth for Hitech, just outside the points, ahead of Oliver Goethe and Ritomo Miyata. Kush Maini came home 12th for ART Grand Prix, ahead of penalised Dunne and Tsolov.

Camara did at least take the fastest lap with a 1m55.796s, adding another useful marker on a mixed day.

The top of the championship is now tightly packed. Mini leads with 42 points. Camara has 36, Tsolov 35, Leon 32 and van Hoepen 31. Beganovic follows on 24, with Miyata on 22.

That spread matters because F2 seasons can turn quickly. A clean feature race can swing the table. A penalty, safety car or stalled start can undo a strong weekend.

For Leon, though, Montreal should feel different. This was not a lucky win inherited at the end. He raced Duerksen, caught Mini, made the pass for the lead and nailed two restarts under pressure.

That is the kind of victory that changes how a driver is viewed in the paddock. Leon arrived in Montreal chasing a statement. He left with a trophy, a major points haul and a place in the fight at the front.