Round Three – Saudi Arabia – Sport Grill

Roundup of the third round of the 2025 F2 season as the title lead changed hands in Saudi Arabia.

Invicta’s Leonardo Fornaroli arrived in Jeddah with a slender title lead over Alex Dunne and Luke Browning but a lively weekend of action across the field saw a new youngest-ever race winner, amidst two changes of the title lead.

Practice

Hitech GP’s Luke Browning and Dino Beganovic were first out on track but it was AIX Racing’s Joshua Durksen who set the initial benchmark time of 1m 49.034 in the eighth minute.

Victor Martins, Kush Maini and Roman Stanek soon traded the fastest lap until Mani posted 1m 46.437 to go top in the 16th minute, but Martins went 0.005 seconds quicker just seven minutes later with 1m 46.432 to set the pace ahead of the race simulations.

Times however continued to fall during the race simulations as Durksen, Stanek and Gabriele Mini soon traded the quickest lap times, until Martins ultimately set a session-topping 1m 45.671 with three minutes left on the clock.

PREMA’s Sebastian Montoya however was disqualified post-session after his car failed to meet the required 0.8kg fuel sample requirement, having left just 0.25kg in the tank for collection.

Qualifying

After his disqualification from practice, Montoya was first out on track in Qualifying and laid 1m 44.982 as the immediate benchmark, as everyone switched to the super-soft tyres for the session.

Martins however continued his pace from practice to top the opening run with 1m 44.559 ahead of Dunne and Montoya, but Lindblad displaced him on the second run with 1m 44.250, which put the Campos rookie just 0.073s clear of Martins as the top 18 were split by 0.092s at the halfway mark.

Bennett however caused a nine-minute red flag at the start of the final run as he spun out of Turn 17 after Browning went onto provisional pole with 1m 43.737 with five minutes left on the clock.

At the checkered flag, Fornaroli displaced Browning by 0.066s but he himself was denied a second consecutive pole as Martins went 0.070s quicker, yet Crawford left it until the last moment to snatch pole with 1m 43.579 for DAMS.

Lindblad, Dunne, Marti, Mini, Verschoor and Stanek rounded out the top ten but Stanek lost reverse-pole to Verschoor after he was handed three-place grid penalties for both races due to having impeded Dunne through Turns 7 and 8, which dropped the Czech driver to fourth for the Sprint.

Sprint Race

At lights out, Verschoor led from pole but Mini lost second to Marti who sped around the outside of Turns 1 and 2 to take second, whilst Lindblad cleared Stanek for fourth but the Virtual Safety Car was deployed after Cian Shields spun out at the opening corner.

Racing recommenced on Lap 3 which saw Lindblad quickly clear Mini for third whilst Marti caught and passed Verschoor for the lead at the start of the next lap.

Verschoor however squeezed Marti wide into the second corner on Lap 5 to retake the lead and Marti lost second to Lindblad three laps later after he ran wide at Turn 8, whilst Mini soon passed the Spaniard on that same lap but found himself repassed at the start of Lap 9.

Mini however cut the opening corner in the process after Stanek got alongside him and had to concede fourth to the Czech driver at the end of that lap, which gave him DRS into the start of the next lap as he and Dunne cleared Stanek although the Italian again cut the same corner and had to gift fourth to Dunne to avoid a penalty.

Stanek then further punished Mini with a pass for fifth on Lap 12, whilst Crawford quietly worked his way from tenth on the grid to seventh by the start of Lap 15 with a pass on Fornaroli.

Mini however spun Crawford out at the first corner on Lap 16 after the American tried an inside move, which stewards ruled to be a racing incident, as the safety car was deployed until the end of Lap 17.

Racing resumed on Lap 18 and Fornaroli quickly cleared Mini for sixth but the Italian soon recovered his position, whilst Verschoor up front received a five-second time penalty for forcing Marti wide at Turn 1 during the early stages of the race.

Verschoor proceeded to take victory on the road but his penalty dropped him to fourth and meant that at 17 years, eight months and 11 days, Lindblad became the youngest-ever F2 race winner in a Campos one-two ahead of Marti as Dunne rounded out the podium.

Stanek, Mini, Fornaroli and Martins rounded out the top eight finishers.

In the drivers’ standings, Dunne and Marti shared the title lead on 31 points as Fornaroli slipped to third ahead of Verschoor who moved above Browning into fourth position.

Feature Race

At lights out, Crawford led Martins, Fornaroli and Browning who fought off Lindblad which left the latter on the kerbs at Turn 5 and passed by Dunne who demoted him to sixth.

Lindblad’s start then got worse on the second lap after his teammate, Marti demoted him to seventh but the pair and everyone else found themselves affected by a brief DRS outage across Laps 4-5, before Browning got DRS to pass Fornaroli for third at the start of Lap 6 with Dunne following through.

Further back, Bennett suffered front wing damage at the end of Lap 6 which left debris strewn across the start-finish straight as Fornaroli and Marti pitted, with Crawford, Browning and Dunne following suit a lap later before Martins pitted at the end of Lap 8 and jumped Crawford for the net lead.

The VSC was deployed following Martins’ pit stop due to the debris but not before Dunne ran deep at Turn 1 and rejoined dangerously as he squeezed Browning wide at Turn 2, which allowed Fornaroli to take net third-place on the road.

Slightly ahead of the scrap for net third-place, Crawford cleared Martins into Turn 1 on Lap 12 with DRS to take the net lead.

Verschoor meanwhile assumed the lead on the alternate strategy ahead of Maini as eight drivers opted to run the medium to super soft tyre strategy, which saw the Dutchman calmly extend his lead over Maini when he eventually pitted at the end of Lap 23.

Verschoor rejoined fourth in-between Crawford and Martins and found himself 3.3s off the American once he warmed up his tyres on his outlap.

Once the alternate runners completed their pit stops at the start of the final lap, Crawford headed Verschoor by 0.100s but was passed into the first corner as the Dutchman roared from ninth on the grid to claim his fifth F2 victory.

Martins cruised home in third ahead of Fornaroli, Marti, Browning, whilst Lindblad, Dunne and Mini clung on to finish seventh, eighth and ninth following separate 5s time penalties, as Maini fought off Durksen for the final point in tenth position.

Verschoor now leads the standings on 53 points ahead of Marti by 12 points with Fornaroli a further point back in third ahead of Dunne and Browning.

F2 will recommence the season on weekend of 16-18 May with a trip to Imola, Italy.

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