The 2025 F2 Belgian Grand Prix weekend for Formula 2 had it all: dominance, downpours, and drama long after the chequered flag. Alex Dunne swept Free Practice and Qualifying and crossed the line first in a rain-hit Feature Race, only to lose the win hours later due to a post-race penalty.
Arvid Lindblad was next in line, but a disqualification for low tyre pressures handed victory to Roman Stanek, giving Invicta Racing a dream weekend.
Leonardo Fornaroli claimed a second consecutive Sprint win and now leads the Drivers’ Championship, as Invicta surged to the top of the Teams’ Standings.
The Chronicle Headlines
- Feature Race victory changes hands twice – Dunne penalised, Lindblad disqualified, Stanek inherits Spa win in post-race shake-up.
- Dunne drops from P1 to P9 — the Rodin driver’s technical breach costs him victory and championship lead in a painful post-race twist.
- Lindblad disqualified — Campos driver stripped of P2 and fastest lap point for running below minimum wet tyre pressures.
- Fornaroli strikes again — back-to-back Sprint wins launch the Invicta driver into the championship lead for the first time this season.
- Miyata delivers career-best weekend with second in Qualifying, a strong Sprint performance, and a well-earned P2 in the Feature Race after late-race reshuffles.
- Invicta Racing takes control of the championship, climbing to the top of the Teams’ Standings after a weekend with victories in both the Sprint and Feature Race.
- Verschoor scoreless in Spa — a rough weekend and early Sprint retirement drop the former points leader to second overall.
Friday Practice: Dunne Dials In at Spa
Rodin Motorsport’s Alexander Dunne opened his Belgian Grand Prix weekend with authority, topping a disrupted Free Practice session that saw fog, drama, and flashes of brilliance cut through Spa’s moody morning mist.
Clocking a 1:59.519 in the closing moments, Dunne found grip where others skated, edging PREMA’s Gabriele Minì by nearly four-tenths. ART’s Victor Martins rounded out the top three despite a heart-in-mouth kerb hop that nearly ended his session early.
The track evolved rapidly as weather improved, but not everyone adapted. Max Esterson smoked his brakes early, Joshua Dürksen saw lap times deleted and a pit infringement noted, while Turn 11 became the scene of repeated misjudgments.
Title leader Richard Verschoor stayed out of trouble in P7, and although consistent, it was Dunne’s adaptability that shone. As setups sharpen and Spa shows its many faces, Friday hinted at chaos beneath calm.
Qualifying: Dunne Paints Spa Purple
Spa is a circuit that remembers greatness. On Friday, Alexander Dunne gave it something new to recall, a pole lap that didn’t just top the timesheets, it towered over them.
After going fastest in Free Practice, the Rodin Motorsport rookie lit up the qualifying session from the moment he left the pit lane. His opening push-lap set the tone, but it was his final flyer, a blistering 1:57.151 that sealed the deal, delivering his second pole of the season by a commanding 0.419s margin. It was Spa, and it was surgical.
Behind him, Ritomo Miyata delivered a career-best P2 for ART Grand Prix, while Invicta’s Roman Stanek split the ART cars to claim third. Victor Martins added another strong result for ART in fourth, showing the French squad’s pace was no fluke.
Campos duo Arvid Lindblad and Pepe Martí were strong in fifth and sixth, their consistency again keeping the team in both championships. But it was a rough afternoon for Leonardo Fornaroli, whose early-session promise faded to a muted P7. For a driver still in title contention, that’s a missed moment.
And for championship leader Richard Verschoor? It was damage limitation. The MP Motorsport driver never quite hooked up a clean lap and will start 11th, an uncharacteristic misfire at a circuit where small margins grow legs.
Further down the top 10, Gabriele Minì quietly slotted into eighth, Amaury Cordeel gave the home crowd reason to cheer with ninth, and Oliver Goethe who was out of sync and out of time for most of the session salvaged tenth and, crucially, reverse-grid pole for Saturday’s Sprint.
As the Ardennes clouds held back and the tarmac stayed dry, Dunne struck hard. Spa rewards the brave. On Friday, it rewarded the best.
Sprint: Fornaroli Flies as Title Rivals Collide
Leonardo Fornaroli might have started third, but by Turn 1 he was already gone. The Invicta Racing driver launched perfectly off the line, slipped up the inside of Cordeel and Goethe, and never looked back. Claiming his second straight Sprint victory and stamping his name firmly in the title fight.
Title contenders crash out early
Behind him, chaos. Championship leader Richard Verschoor, title rivals Luke Browning and Jak Crawford all three clashed at La Source in a squeeze that sent Browning spinning into the gravel and Verschoor into Eau Rouge sideways. The Dutchman would later retire with sidepod damage; Browning didn’t even make it past Turn 2. Crawford limped on, but his race was ruined.
Fornaroli took full control up front. Cordeel initially kept pressure on the leader, but a lock-up gave Victor Martins the window he needed. The ART driver first took Goethe for third, then swept around Cordeel at Les Combes to claim P2 just before the Belgian skated into the gravel, prompting a second Safety Car.
Tyre gamble splits the field
Strategy unfolded in real-time. The midfield blinked first, diving in for soft tyres, gambling on grip. Fornaroli, Martins and Minì stayed out on mediums, betting on track position and rhythm. When the race resumed, Minì quickly dispatched Goethe to claim the final podium spot and that was as far as the reshuffling went.
Despite fresher rubber, Martí, Stanek, and Dunne couldn’t mount the charge they’d hoped. A late-race stoppage for Sami Meguetounif locked the order under Safety Car, freezing Martí in fifth, Stanek sixth, Dunne seventh, and Miyata eighth.
Bonus point drama caps a perfect day
Post-race drama reshuffled more than just positions. Arvid Lindblad, who had provisionally claimed the fastest lap point, was handed a five-second penalty for contact with Dino Beganovic during the restart. The penalty dropped him out of the top 10, handing the bonus point to Leonardo Fornaroli instead. It capped off a perfect Sprint Race for the Invicta driver, who walked away with maximum points.
FEATURE RACE: Penalties and plot twists rewrite the Spa story
What began as a wet-weather masterclass from Alexander Dunne turned into one of the most dramatic post-race turnarounds in recent Formula 2 memory.
The 2025 F2 Belgian Grand Prix Feature Race started behind the Safety Car under heavy rain. Dunne, on pole for Rodin Motorsport, controlled the early stages, pulling clear while others struggled for visibility. With clean air ahead and strong pace on the wets, he opened a gap of nearly two seconds by Lap 2.
Behind him, Roman Stanek, Ritomo Miyata, and Arvid Lindblad engaged in a tight scrap for second. Miyata initially lost P2 to Stanek, but quickly fought back at Les Combes. That squabble gave Dunne breathing room, though he later faced growing pressure as tyre degradation set in.
As conditions worsened, the race became increasingly tactical. Pit stops for fresh wets began around Lap 11. Dunne waited a lap longer than most of his rivals and emerged just ahead of Stanek, holding the effective race lead after a side-by-side moment at Les Combes.
However, the battle was far from over. A charging Lindblad moved into second and began to close the gap before a late-race Safety Car neutralized the field, following a spin for Sebastián Montoya. Shortly after, Oliver Goethe’s engine failure brought out the red flag freezing the order and seemingly confirming Dunne’s third Feature Race win of the season.
Penalties shuffle the pack: Stanek inherits stunning victory
Hours after the chequered flag, Dunne was hit with a 10-second time penalty. The reason? A breach of Article 1.6.1 of the FIA F2 Technical Regulations which means failure to engage the mandatory start-up procedure before the formation lap. Rodin Motorsport claimed the rolling start nullified the requirement, but stewards disagreed. The penalty demoted Dunne from P1 to P9, erasing his hard-fought victory and his return to the top of the championship standings.
That should have handed the win to Arvid Lindblad, who had shown poise and racecraft in the changing conditions. But post-race scrutineering revealed a fatal error: all four of his tyres were under the minimum allowed wet pressure. His Campos Racing car was in breach of Article 10.4.3, resulting in a full disqualification.
Instead, Roman Stanek inherited the win, his second in Formula 2 and first since 2023. Quietly consistent and always in the mix, the Invicta Racing driver stayed within striking range and made no mistakes when it mattered. His victory, combined with Fornaroli’s Sprint win, gave Invicta Racing the overall team lead for the first time this season.
Ritomo Miyata was elevated to second place, marking his career-best finish in Formula 2. The ART Grand Prix driver was a podium threat throughout the race, and his reward finally came even if delayed. Meanwhile, Luke Browning, who had spun in pit exit mid-race, was suddenly classified third, scoring a crucial podium for Hitech TGR after starting outside the top 10.
F2 title battle shaken once again at Spa
While Dunne lost more than just a trophy, Leonardo Fornaroli quietly reaped the benefits. After winning Saturday’s Sprint Race and finishing seventh on the road in the Feature, he gained another 2 places post-race and secured P5 which is enough to move him into the championship lead.
It was a damaging weekend for former leader Richard Verschoor, who left Spa empty-handed after being caught up in Sprint chaos and finishing out of the points in the Feature. He now sits second in the standings, behind Fornaroli.
Five drivers now sit above the 100-point mark, with just 12 points separating new leader Leonardo Fornaroli from fifth-placed Luke Browning. Meaning a single strong weekend could turn the standings on their head.
In the Teams’ Championship, Invicta Racing has taken the lead with a 13-point gap over Campos Racing. Hitech Pulse-Eight now sits third, 19 points adrift, thanks to a solid haul from both Browning and Beganovic, who charged into the points from outside the top ten.
Spa proved once again that in Formula 2, everything can change on the track, and long after the chequered flag.
And there’s no time to pause, the next chapter in this title fight comes next weekend, as the paddock heads to the tight and technical Hungaroring.
Feature Image Credit: Formula Motorsport Ltd