Joshua Dürksen turned a breakthrough weekend into a statement one at Monza, backing up his Sprint Race triumph with a composed, hard-edged victory in the Formula 2 Feature Race. Rafael Camara chased him all the way to the flag, Noel Leon picked off the pieces to join them on the podium, and the title picture tightened behind them.
Dürksen seizes control after Camara’s nightmare launch
The script at lights out should have favoured Ferrari junior Rafael Camara. Pole position. Home of the Scuderia. A front row to attack from.
Instead, his start unraveled within seconds.
Camara bogged down badly and then compounded it with a lock-up into Turn 1. He skated straight on, cut the chicane, and with it surrendered the lead to his Invicta Racing teammate Dürksen, who had launched cleanly and read the chaos perfectly.
From there, the race turned into an internal Invicta duel.
By Lap 4, Camara had regrouped and the two teammates began trading blows into the Rettifilo chicane. Lap after lap, they swapped positions under braking, Dürksen defending hard, Camara probing for a way to make the move stick. The tension built, the margin razor-thin.
Dürksen blinked first on strategy, diving into the pits at the end of Lap 6. Camara stretched his stint to Lap 8, then rejoined just behind the Paraguayan, the pair now locked into a straight fight to the finish with Dunne looming in the mirrors.
Safety Car twists, but doesn’t break, Invicta’s grip
The race flipped again on Lap 12.
Colton Herta slid off into the gravel at Parabolica, his car beached and the Safety Car summoned. The field bunched up. Any cushion Dürksen had carved out vanished in an instant.
On the restart, the leader didn’t flinch. Dürksen nailed the launch, covered the inside, and held track position into Turn 1. Camara, though, had his hands full. Dunne attacked aggressively, forcing the Brazilian to defend while trying not to lose touch with his teammate.
The Irishman pushed too hard. Under pressure, he ran through the Roggia chicane and had to give up momentum and position, opening the door for Noel Leon to slip past and into the podium places. Leon didn’t waste the invitation.
Behind them, the points battle took a twist of its own. Nikola Tsolov, carrying the weight of a title fight and Red Bull junior expectations, could manage only seventh. It was enough to score, but not enough to keep Rafael Camara from closing the gap in the standings. At the same time, MP Motorsport’s Gabriele Mini endured a miserable home race, failing to score at Monza and watching his rivals edge away.
Final-lap pressure, same result
The closing phase belonged to Camara’s relentless pursuit.
Lap after lap, the Brazilian edged closer, chipping away at Dürksen’s lead, using every slipstream down the long Monza straights. The Invicta pit wall watched two of their own go wheel-to-wheel with nothing soft-pedaled between them.
As the final lap began, the gap had shrunk to striking distance. Camara sat in DRS range, the red car looming in Dürksen’s mirrors, one last chance to flip the story of his day.
It wasn’t enough.
Dürksen stayed ice-cold, hit every apex that mattered, and refused to offer even half a car’s width. Camara chased him all the way to the line, but the Paraguayan crossed it first, sealing a commanding Monza double: Sprint and Feature, both his.
Leon followed them home to secure the final step on the podium, reward for keeping his head while others tripped over the chicanes and their own ambition.
Two wins in two days at the Temple of Speed. A tightening championship fight. And a clear message from Joshua Dürksen: this is no longer just a good weekend. It’s the standard he intends to set.
