Five ways to end up in the gravel

It’s been so long since the last F2 round that I barely recognise who anyone is anymore. Wait some of these drivers really weren’t here earlier in the year. At this point Qatar may as well be the start of a whole new season, a season where Leo Fornaroli gets to start nearly 200 points ahead of Cian Shields. Unlucky Cian.

Apparently there were still a load of drivers in mathematical contention for the F2 2025 championship crown, including Jak Crawford, Luke Browning, Richard Verschoor and Alex Dunne, all trying to keep their championship hopes alive behind Fornaroli. Dunne at least trying to keep something alive after being booted out of the McLaren driver development programme, resulting in a respray for his previously papaya liveried F2 car, while Verschoor hung onto final hopes that his five years in F2 might have been worth it after all.

Practice: Spinning into the gravel

Practice consisted of one big replay of drivers going wide off track, until James Wharton showed up from F3 and took things to the next level by spinning his car around, followed soon after by fellow F3 guy Martinius Stenshorne. Luke Browning was the next to spin, but, like the others, he managed to keep it together and get back on track. Lucky them. After all the going wide and spinning, the session ended with Fornaroli the fastest, followed by Dino Beganovic in second and Dunne third.

Qualifying: Wobbling into the gravel

Qualifying was similar to Practice in that they all proceeded to test how far they could go before they ended up wobbling off track. Sebastián Montoya was first to nearly lose it, before Beganovic decided one spin in a weekend just wasn’t enough. Meanwhile, actually staying on track, Fornaroli was trading times with Oliver Goethe for the top spot, which Beganovic apparently thought might be a better idea than spinning, so he too had a go at being number one for a moment. As they all took turns to be fastest, Fornaroli was starting to look most comfortable until, with one minute to go, Goethe stole pole position from Fornaroli, which probably would have been really annoying for Fornaroli except that Goethe was subsequently handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding Stenshorne. Lucky Fornaroli.

Sprint Race: Barging into the gravel

Verschoor had reverse-grid pole-position for the Sprint Race, with Josh Dürksen and Rafael Villagómez behind, starting second and third. Villagómez seemed pretty excited to be there, saying that he just needed to go for the win, while Dürksen was a little more reserved in wanting to have a good start, manage his tyres and go for the win. Veteran Verschoor had a more mature approach, saying he just needed the points and would go for the win. Great, because we know that three into one usually works so well in motor racing…

Dürksen’s plan to get a good start was the one that paid off the most, as he flew into the lead, leaving Verschoor and Villagómez to fend off Nikola Tsolov who had launched himself all the way from the F3 grid (aka fourth) and suddenly into third place, between Verschoor (second) and Villagómez (fourth). Verschoor put up with this for a couple of laps before retaking the lead from Dürksen, which was the only exciting thing that happened until Trident teammates Wharton and Laurens Van Hoepen crashed into each other, leaving Wharton in the gravel trap and the Safety Car deployed for duties.

A desperate few decided to use the Safety Car as an opportunity to mix things up, stopping in the pits to get new soft tyres. This gamble paid off particularly badly for Kush Maini whose team failed to fit his tyres properly, resulting in him pulling to the side of the road to end his race. The gamble paid off relatively badly for everyone else too as now they were just at the back on a track that’s hard to overtake… lucky them.

Up front, Verschoor’s restart looked easy and everything carried on as normal, until a few laps later when the Safety Car was summoned again courtesy of a spinning Shields. It wasn’t until the last lap that the Safety Car returned to the pit lane, leaving a slightly less civilised restart. While Verschoor and Dürksen got away unscathed, fourth-placed Villagómez saw his chance for a podium position and wasn’t afraid to be a bit bargy in the process. His technique paid off and soon, despite putting up a good fight, Tsolov was off track and dropping down to tenth position, as Villagómez flew through to take third place, behind second-placed Dürksen (who dedicated his podium to his grandma, lovely) and winner Verschoor.

Feature Race: More barging into the gravel

With runaway championship leader Fornaroli on pole for the Feature Race things were looking bleak for the other so-called championship contenders, but they all carried on anyway. Starting behind Fornaroli was Victor Martins in second (another man who is used to disappointment) and Roman Staněk (who probably also feels general disappointment solely by virtue of being Fornaroli’s teammate, no one wants to watch their team mate winning).

Martins refused to be beaten by the air of disappointment, however, as he flew off the start line and straight into the lead. It was all Fornaroli could do to stop Staněk from also overtaking him, while Dunne simultaneously managed to overtake Goethe for fourth place. Behind them in the background was just a mass of gravelly dust as they all tried to barge past each other, a sight that would become increasingly familiar as the race went on.

As Martins quickly pulled out a lead and Fornaroli complained about his tyres (F1 driver in training), Dunne was making short work of passing Staněk for third place. Further back, Dürksen was trying to make short work of Beganovic, but instead it was a more bargy, dust-cloud like moment, as Beganovic complained “He can’t do that, report him!” But apparently he could do that and everything carried on until Fornaroli decided to take his mandatory pit stop, with Dunne following suit. A lap later and Martins took his pit stop, which went awfully but he somehow still managed to come back out ahead of Fornaroli and Dunne. Besides, Ritomo Miyata’s pit stop went so much worse, as after one lap, he was back in to retire the car. Although Dunne’s and Tsolov’s pit stops apparently didn’t go too great either as they both later received five-second penalties for unsafe releases in the pit lane.

Soon everyone on the regular strategy had taken their pit stops and only those on the alternative strategy were left out front, led by Beganovic, who was soooo fast and pulling such a massive gap to Martins that he would surely have time to take a pit stop and still come out in the lead. Also flying was Wharton, although when you do that in the pit lane they give you a five-second penalty, as he learnt. Not fast and definitely struggling was Montoya who told his engineer to leave him alone because “the car is fucking hard to drive” to which he was promptly told to “recenter and breathe.” There was no record as to what Montoya’s response was… However, the prize for the biggest struggle went to Goethe, whose was suddenly slowing down and pulled into an escape road to retire, resulting in a Safety Car. Normally a Safety Car would be music in the ears of those wanting to still take a pit stop, except it was too early in the race. The alternative strategy runners who were yet to pit needed to switch onto the soft tyres, but there was no way they would last to the end of the race. Arvid Lindblad decided to give it a try anyway. Everyone else decided to stay out and Beganovic’s dream stint became a nightmare, as he lost most of the pit-stop sized gap he had pulled out from Martins.

After the Safety Car, Beganovic continued to race around at a flying speed, Wharton continued to get penalties (10 seconds for leaving the track and gaining an advantage) and we continued to get arty shots of cars leaving the track in a puff of gravelly smoke. In the closing laps of the race, the alternative strategy crew, led by Beganovic, jumped into the pits for their mandatory stops. Beganovic came out behind Staněk, leaving the podium positions clear for Martins, Fornaroli and Dunne. Dunne looked momentarily under threat, given his outstanding five-second penalty, but luckily for him it was Lindblad’s ancient soft tyres behind and Lindblad was unable to keep within five seconds as they crossed the finish line.

Martins won the race but Fornaroli was the 2025 F2 champion, not that he had any clue, with his team taking their time to let him know as they hastily worked out the maths. Martins was happy, Fornaroli was very happy, who knows if Dunne was happy and they all had a presumably lovely time on the podium.

Championship standings: Metaphorically into the gravel

Fornaroli wins the F2 2025 championship, meaning back-to-back championship wins for him. Everyone else leaves disappointed and must head into the metaphorical gravel, apart from those who get Formula 1 seats, obviously. Lucky them.

But there’s still one race weekend to go, in Abu Dhabi, lucky us!