Joshua Duerksen explained after he took a dominant victory in the first Formula 2 Sprint Race of the 2026 season in Melbourne.
Starting the race in second, Duerksen got ahead of Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak early into the race and held onto the lead through a Safety Car restart to take victory.
The Paraguayan driver admitted it was a “very good race,” explaining how moving ahead of Inthraphuvsak early was key to taking the win.
“For sure, it was a very good race.” He told Motorsport Week and other media, “Very nice move actually around the outside in T9, a bit risky because of course T9 is not the best corner to overtake, but it was my only chance to make the move before I get stuck on the DRS train.
“I just made sure to overtake as quickly as possible. It worked pretty well, so from that point on, I could just manage my tyres, manage the pace, and bring it home. Generally, it was a very good race.”
A strong restart
The Safety Car came at a bad time for Duerksen, who had a healthy lead. However, he didn’t let the disruption deter him; leading the field green, he left his opponents behind and once again broke the DRS train, disappearing into the distance.
He noted his strong Safety Car restart, “Luckily, I managed to have a good Safety Car restart, I think I broke the one-second gap just before T1 already.” He said.
“That was very important, very good, because I know that once the guy is inside the DRS, it will be difficult to just go away of it, so it was very important to have this one-second gap before T1 and then just creating the bigger gap, so yeah, luckily the Safety Car restart went well.
Despite the Sprint Race having no mandatory pit stop, a slew of drivers chose to pit in the closing stages under the Safety Car. The degradation is not usually high around Albert Park, but F2 switched from the medium compound to the soft compound for Australia.
Duerksen spoke about how the change in compound added an unknown element to the session.
“You had some rear degradation, because this is actually the first time we raced with a Soft tyre as a Prime tyre, last year was with the Medium. The Medium was holding quite well during the race, but with the Soft, for sure, you feel that there’s more degradation, so you need to be careful.
“Luckily, Melbourne is not a track which is so aggressive on the tyres anyway, so it’s a bit easier to drive, but still with the softer compound, you still need to be careful because you can destroy them quite easily if you don’t do it well”
Eyes on the Feature
Despite getting off to a near-perfect start, Deurksen wants more from the weekend, with his sights set on the Feature Race victory and the 25 points that come along with it.
“For sure, I can’t complain with a victory.” He told Motorsport Week and other media, “I mean, I’m very happy that I got the first victory of the season and with Invicta.
“It’s the Sprint Race, the main goal is to have this kind of victory spot on the Feature Race, that’s the target and I think we will have to pace for it, but we have to maximise every opportunity, this time I had the opportunity to win the Sprint Race.
“So we did it, we got some good points, but for sure we will keep working to get more points, which is in the Feature Race.”
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