Dino Beganovic saved his best for last. Two red flags, multiple provisional pole changes and barely three minutes left for a final run. F2 Australian GP 2026 Qualifying immediately reminded everyone what this series does best. The DAMS Lucas Oil driver dug out a 1:28.695 on the final attempt to claim the Aramco Pole Position Award and head a session that never once settled. Martinius Stenshorne and Alexander Dunne locked out the second row for Rodin Motorsport. Campos Racing sealed P4 and P5 with Noel León and Nikola Tsolov. A first qualifying hour of 2026 that felt like the championship had never left.
Key Points – F2 Australian GP 2026 Qualifying
- Beganovic takes pole on a 1:28.695 for DAMS Lucas Oil
- Stenshorne P2, Dunne P3 – Rodin Motorsport lock out the second row behind Beganovic
- León P4 and Tsolov P5 give Campos Racing a strong platform
- Câmara P6, Maini P7 both in the mix for the Sprint
- Goethe P8 after showing top-five pace earlier in the session
- Duerksen P9, Inthraphuvasak P10
- Mari Boya DNF after heavy Turn 12 impact. Driver confirmed OK.
- Gabriele Minì second red flag with on-track stoppage
- Colton Herta P14 on F2 debut with Hitech
- Montoya P15 – tough start to 2026 for PREMA
- Reverse-grid Sprint front row: Inthraphuvasak and Duerksen
Red Flags and Rhythm – A Session That Couldn’t Find Its Feet
Albert Park qualifying rarely does straightforward. This one went further than most.
Beganovic moved first. An early 1:29.953 gave DAMS the initial benchmark. Duerksen slotted into P2 with his Invicta teammate Câmara in third. Clean early laps. Familiar faces at the top.
Stenshorne broke the pattern. The Norwegian moved to provisional pole before Tsolov improved again with a 1:29.381 to push him back. The session was finding its pace. Then it stopped.
Mari Boya snapped at Turn 12 and hit the barrier hard. The PREMA driver climbed out and was confirmed OK, but the session was suspended. A heavy early setback for the PREMA rookie. Red flag one.
The restart came with 20 minutes remaining. Drivers filtered back out on fresh tyres, but no one found an improvement before the session stopped again. The window was closing. Minì then stopped trackside with a mechanical issue and brought the red flags out again before anyone had posted a meaningful lap. Red flag two.
Three minutes left when qualifying resumed. One lap. That was it.
Final Lap, Final Order
What followed was exactly the kind of finish F2 delivers when the stakes are compressed into a single attempt.
Pole changed hands three times in the final seconds. Stenshorne went to the top. Dunne went faster. Then Beganovic, running later in the sequence, pieced together the cleanest lap of the session – a 1:28.695 that put him clear.
Stenshorne and Dunne ended P2 and P3, split by 0.128s behind Beganovic. León came through for Campos in P4. Tsolov, who had led the session mid-way through, fell to P5 at the flag.
Câmara settled for P6 after leading the early phase. Maini took P7 for ART. Goethe P8. Duerksen P9. Inthraphuvasak P10 to complete the top ten and head the reverse-grid Sprint front row alongside Duerksen.
Colton Herta landed P14 on his F2 debut. Montoya P15. PREMA’s day defined by Boya’s accident and a qualifying hour that never gave their drivers the rhythm they needed.
Final Classification – F2 Australian GP 2026 Qualifying
Standout Stories
Beganovic times it perfectly
Led early. Gave up the lead. Came back when it mattered most. The hallmark of a driver who knows how to run a qualifying session under pressure.
Rodin lock out the second row
Stenshorne and Dunne split by 0.128s. Two drivers, same team, same rhythm. A serious threat for the Sprint and beyond.
Campos Racing with a double top-five
León and Tsolov in P4 and P5. Consistent, clean, dangerous. Campos don’t make noise. They just keep arriving at the front.
Boya’s heavy impact
Turn 12 is unforgiving. Confirmed OK, but a brutal way to open a season. PREMA will need to regroup fast with Montoya also well off the pace in P15.
Herta makes his F2 debut
P14 on his first qualifying outing with Hitech. In the pack and ahead of established names. A solid start.
Goethe off the front
P8 with the laps to suggest more was possible. MP Motorsport will want answers overnight.
Sprint Ahead
Inthraphuvasak and Duerksen lead the reverse-grid Sprint front row. Clean air for both from the standing start. Beganovic, Stenshorne and Dunne begin from the back half of the Sprint field, which means the championship narrative is already building before a race lap has been run.
Albert Park rewards overtaking through the chicane complex and the back straight. Tyre warm-up in the early laps will be critical – anyone caught in traffic when the Soft drops off the cliff faces a very long second stint.
Expect movement through the field early.
Coffee Corner Take
F2 didn’t ease anyone in gently. Two red flags. A driver in a barrier. Three minutes to decide pole position. The 2026 season arrived like it had something to prove.
Beganovic deserves credit. He had led the session early and could easily have been undone when the rhythm broke. Instead he rebuilt, held his nerve in the final lap scramble, and found the time when it counted. That’s not just pace. That’s composure.
Rodin are a real threat already. Stenshorne has unfinished business from 2025. Dunne keeps stepping up at every opportunity. Two of them on the second row together on day one sends a message.
Boya’s accident casts a shadow over PREMA’s opening. Montoya P15 and Boya out. That’s not where they expected to be. A long weekend ahead to find out if this is a setup problem or something deeper.
The Sprint grid is fascinating. The drivers who matter most start at the back of it. Which means Saturday is going to be exactly what this series always delivers at its best.
One qualifying session. Already a season’s worth of storylines.
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