Round Two – Bahrain – Sport Grill

Roundup of the second round of the 2025 F2 season in Bahrain which provided plenty of thrills in the desert. 

With just one race under everyone’s belt due to a cancelled Australian Feature Race, F2 arrived in Bahrain for its 199th and 200th races with the title picture still yet to emerge as a dramatic pair of races produced plenty of drama.

Practice

ART GP’s Ritomo Miyata and Victor Martins were first to hit the track but it was AIX Racing’s Joshua Durksen who soon set the pace, as he posted 1m 48.954 in the 11th minute in a pretty quiet start to the weekend.

Times however soon began to tumble in the 23rd minute as Oliver Goethe, Alex Dunne and Pepe Marti soon went quickest,

MP Motorsport’s Goethe however left it until the penultimate minute to top the session with 1m 47.789 from his teammate, Richard Verschoor, as the Dutchman fell 0.222s shy in second ahead of Marti.

Qualifying

Miyata and Martins were first to hit the track in Qualifying but it was PREMA’s Montoya who set the initial benchmark of 2m 02.683, but Fornaroli found himself quickest once everyone set a representative lap time as the reigning F3 champion posted 1m 44.642 in the eighth minute of the session.

Nobody bettered Fornaroli’s lap time in the second runs as Marti and Verschoor moved into second and third respectively ahead of the final runs, which initially saw Martins go fastest with 1m 44.163 with just two minutes left.

Fornaroli however responded in the final minute to claim his maiden F2 pole position with 1m 44.008, which left Martins second on the grid ahead of Browning and Dunne, whilst Fornaroli’s teammate – Stanek qualified fifth.

Verschoor, Meguetounif, Villagomez, Beganovic and Durksen rounded out the top ten, with Durksen on reverse pole for the sprint.

Sprint Race

At lights out, Durksen made a clean start to lead Beganovic and Villagomez but the safety car was quickly deployed after Cordeel spun Montoya out at Turn 8.

Racing resumed on Lap 5 as Bennett lost four positions to slip from ninth to 13th behind Stanek, Lindblad, Crawford and Mini.

Marti meanwhile had worked his way up to sixth but illegally passed Dunne off-track towards Turn 4 on Lap 6 and gave the position back two laps later, whilst Verschoor cleared Villagomez for third on Lap 10.

Up front, Durksen lost the lead to Beganovic on Lap 11 but the safety car was once again deployed on Lap 15 after Esterson stopped at Turn 11, which led six drivers to pit for the soft tyre.

Racing recommenced on Lap 19 with Durksen quick to repass Beganovic for the lead and the Swede was demoted to third on Lap 22 by Verschoor at Turn 7, but Marti was alert to jump both drivers then pass Durksen into Turn 1 on the final lap to snatch victory from 11th on the grid.

Post-race, Durksen was disqualified due to his diffuser failing to meet the minimum height requirement by 2mm, which promoted Verschoor up to second ahead of Beganovic, Goethe, Lindblad, Villagomez and Mini, whilst Fornaroli claimed the final point in eighth position.

Verschoor consequently inherited the championship lead on 13 points with a two-point lead over Marti as Durksen slipped to third.

Feature Race

At lights out, Fornaroli made a clean start but Martins got bogged down and fell to sixth as Dunne climbed to second from Villagomez, Stanek and Marti whilst Crawford and Meguetounif rounded out the top eight on the opening lap on soft tyres.

Browning had began the race in third but was the highest of 13 drivers to opt for the alternate hard tyre but slipped to tenth behind Durksen, until he passed the Paraguayan on Lap 5 for ninth to become the lead hard-tyre runner.

Up front, Dunne settled into second until Fornaroli’s front tyres hit the cliff which allowed the Irishman to pass him at the start of Lap 7 for the lead, whilst Marti and Martins had recovered to third and fourth ahead of Stanek who passed Villagomez for fifth.

VAR’s Bennett surprisingly triggered the pit window phase on Lap 11 despite having started on the alternate strategy as the soft and hard tyre strategies unexpectedly collided across the following eight laps, during which Martins jumped Fornaroli and Marti for net second position.

Once everyone made their stops come Lap 18, Dunne re-emerged in the lead but with Martins and Fornaroli hot on his heels, whilst Browning – now on soft tyres – cleared Marti into Turn 4 for fourth.

Browning just three laps later caught and passed Fornaroli for third and quickly got within DRS reach of Martins, and successfully cleared his fellow Williams Academy member on Lap 23 into the first corner for second which put him 5.594a off Dunne.

Dunne ultimately saw off any threat of a late charge from Browning to cruise to his maiden F2 victory from the Brit, Fornaroli cleared Martins into the first corner on Lap 28 to round off the podium despite a late charge from Marti who too passed the Frenchman.

In the drivers’ standings, Fornaroli now inherited the title lead on 26 points with an one-point lead over Dunne who moved up to second, ahead of Marti who sat third as F2 prepares to head to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from 18-20 April.

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