Roundup of the seventh round of the 2025 F2 season in Austria which saw the premier feeder series hit the halfway point of the campaign.
Alex Dunne arrived at the Red Bull Ring as the title leader in a close championship fight which began to open up in a potentially pivotal weekend of the season which hit the halfway mark with a change of title lead.
Practice
Dunne was the first driver to hit the track in practice but it was Hitech GP’s Luke Browning who set the initial pace of 1m 30.567 in the sixth minute, but DAMS’ Jak Crawford soon went fastest.
Times soon began to tumble afterwards as Browning, Amaury Cordeel, Crawford and Victor Martins soon lowered the benchmark, before Crawford posted 1m 16.728 to snatch the fastest lap in the 15th minute.
Campos’ Arvid Lindblad and PREMA’s Gabriele Mini soon displaced the American, as Mini headed the order at the halfway mark with 1m 16.391.
Dunne had quietly worked his speed up throughout practice and eventually made an impact on the top seven with 16 minutes left, before he topped the session with four minutes left as he posted 1m 16.121 which wasn’t beaten in the closing minutes.
Post session, Browning was disqualified after he failed to provide a minimum fuel sample with those who finished below him promoted one position in the classification.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Alex Dunne | Rodin | 1m 16.121 |
| 2 | Gabriele Mini | PREMA | + 0.270 |
| 3 | Arvid Lindblad | Campos | + 0.353 |
| 4 | Victor Martins | ART GP | + 0.366 |
| 5 | Jak Crawford | DAMS | + 0.401 |
| 6 | Leonardo Fornaroli | Invicta | + 0.547 |
| 7 | Kush Maini | DAMS | + 0.561 |
| 8 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | + 0.571 |
| 9 | Ritomo Miyata | ART GP | + 0.596 |
| 10 | Amaury Cordeel | Rodin | + 0.610 |
| 11 | Pepe Marti | Campos | + 0.705 |
| 12 | Sami Meguetounif | Trident | + 0.718 |
| 13 | Oliver Goethe | MP Motorsport | + 0.766 |
| 14 | Sebastian Montoya | PREMA | + 0.804 |
| 15 | Joshua Durksen | AIX Racing | + 0.837 |
| 16 | Roman Stanek | Invicta | + 0.980 |
| 17 | Max Esterson | Trident | + 1.085 |
| 18 | John Bennett | VAR | + 1.101 |
| 19 | Dino Beganovic | Hitech GP | + 1.185 |
| 20 | Rafael Villagomez | VAR | + 1.301 |
| 21 | Cian Shields | AIX Racing | + 1.476 |
| DSQ | Luke Browning | Hitech GP | No Time |
Qualifying
Crawford and Maini led the field out onto the circuit in Qualifying but it was Mini who initially set the representative pace on 1m 15.888 as lap times began to come in during the seventh minute.
Fornaroli however produced 1m 15.769 to put himself on provisional pole from Martins by 0.001s after the opening run, before he found time on his second lap to lower the benchmark to 1m 15.574 from Durksen who slotted into second.
Verschoor was the first driver to displace the Italian in the final run as he posted 1m 15.253 to go fastest, but Martins managed to go 0.010s quicker, yet Fornaroli found a further 0.014s on the Frenchman to claim his second pole of the season as the top three were split by 0.024s.
Mini settled for fourth ahead of; Cordeel, Stanek, Dunne, Durksen, Marti and Bennett who inherited reverse-pole for the sprint.
Marti and Lindblad who had qualified 12th however were handed three-place grid penalties for both races, with Marti having impeded Shields whilst Lindblad impeded Goethe and Crawford during the session.
Marti began the sprint in fifth position and the feature race from 12th on the grid, whilst Lindblad found himself demoted to 15th for both races.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Leonardo Fornaroli | Invicta | 1m 15.229 |
| 2 | Victor Martins | ART GP | + 0.014 |
| 3 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | + 0.024 |
| 4 | Gabriele Mini | PREMA | + 0.171 |
| 5 | Amaury Cordeel | Rodin | + 0.188 |
| 6 | Roman Stanek | Invicta | + 0.202 |
| 7 | Alex Dunne | Rodin | + 0.214 |
| 8 | Joshua Durksen | AIX Racing | + 0.251 |
| 9 | Pepe Marti | Campos | + 0.258 |
| 10 | John Bennett | VAR | + 0.296 |
| 11 | Sebastian Montoya | PREMA | + 0.298 |
| 12 | Arvid Lindblad | Campos | + 0.317 |
| 13 | Ritomo Miyata | ART GP | + 0.345 |
| 14 | Sami Meguetounif | Trident | + 0.422 |
| 15 | Jak Crawford | DAMS | + 0.528 |
| 16 | Oliver Goethe | MP Motorsport | + 0.552 |
| 17 | Luke Browning | Hitech GP | + 0.572 |
| 18 | Kush Maini | DAMS | + 0.649 |
| 19 | Max Esterson | Trident | + 0.783 |
| 20 | Rafael Villagomez | VAR | + 0.808 |
| 21 | Dino Beganovic | Hitech GP | + 0.861 |
| 22 | Cian Shields | AIX Racing | + 1.326 |
Sprint Race
At lights out, Bennett got a slow getaway which allowed Durksen to sweep away into the lead ahead of Stanek and Marti who jumped Dunne, before Marti cleared Stanek into Turn 4 for second whilst Cordeel cleared Bennett and Dunne for fourth.
Bennett settled into fifth ahead of Verschoor, Fornaroli and Dunne but the race was red flagged on lap 2 after Meguetounif tried an inside move at turn 3 on Lindblad, only to hit the Brit’s Campos which launched him over Lindblad and Browning who had been on the outside of the corner.
The trio walked away unharmed whilst Esterson came to a halt just behind the trio as he tried to take avoiding action, although he was able to take the restart after a 32-minute delay unlike Crawford who was permitted to restart but opted not to do so.
DAMS endured further woe on the restart on lap 3 as Maini stalled his car and was unable to exit the pits but he eventually re-joined two laps down on lap 5, just as racing resumed after two laps under the safety car which was soon back out after Goethe’s opportunistic move at turn 3 spun Beganovic out.
Racing resumed on lap 8 with Durksen controlling the lead from Marti whilst Martins and Montoya passed Dunne at turn 3 a lap later, only for the pair to then swap positions at that corner on lap 10 after Martins ran deep into the corner.
Martins later lost tenth to Dunne on lap 15 whilst Marti began to reel Durksen in up front, which saw the Spaniard briefly claim the lead on lap 17 round the outside of turn 4.
Marti however made his second attempt stick with an inside move into turn 3 and proceeded to eventually cruise to victory from Durksen, who fought off Stanek to finish second.
Bennett meanwhile held off Verschoor until the title challenger made an inside pass into turn 4 on lap 24 to take fifth which proved crucial, as he was able to build a gap and avoid a last-lap spin out of turn 3 by Cordeel just ahead of him.
Bennett however didn’t prove so lucky as he was passed by Mini through turns seven and eight on lap 26 but the pair couldn’t avoid Cordeel’s stricken Rodin as Mini ploughed into the Belgian, which led Bennett to hit Mini due to no room to swerve with Fornaroli sent into the back of the Brit.
Verschoor consequently inherited fourth from Montoya but despite a five-second time penalty for a false start, Dunne finished sixth and kept his title lead from Verschoor by a single point.
Martins and Miyata benefitted from the final lap chaos to round out the points in seventh and eighth respectively for ART GP.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Pepe Marti | Campos | 28 | 1h 11m 03.819 |
| 2 | Joshua Durksen | AIX Racing | 28 | + 2.983 |
| 3 | Roman Stanek | Invicta | 28 | + 3.247 |
| 4 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | 28 | + 7.265 |
| 5 | Sebastian Montoya | PREMA | 28 | + 8.392 |
| 6 | Alex Dunne | Rodin | 28 | + 14.320 |
| 7 | Victor Martins | ART GP | 28 | + 14.371 |
| 8 | Ritomo Miyata | ART GP | 28 | + 14.579 |
| 9 | Rafael Villagomez | VAR | 28 | + 18.936 |
| 10 | Max Esterson | Trident | 28 | + 19.964 |
| 11 | Oliver Goethe | MP Motorsport | 28 | + 21.445 |
| 12 | Cian Shields | AIX Racing | 28 | + 23.930 |
| 13 | Amaury Cordeel | Rodin | 27 | + 1 Lap |
| 14 | Gabriele Mini | PREMA | 27 | + 1 Lap |
| 15 | John Bennett | VAR | 27 | + 1 Lap |
| 16 | Leonardo Fornaroli | Invicta | 27 | + 1 Lap |
| 17 | Kush Maini | DAMS | 26 | + 2 Laps |
| RET | Dino Beganovic | Hitech GP | 4 | Collision |
| RET | Luke Browning | Hitech GP | 1 | Collision |
| RET | Arvid Lindblad | Campos | 1 | Collision |
| RET | Sami Meguetounif | Trident | 1 | Collision |
| DNS | Jak Crawford | DAMS | 0 | Power |
Feature Race
Fornaroli enjoyed a clean start from pole unlike Martins who was immediately passed for second by Verschoor due to a slow getaway from second, whilst Mini slotted into fourth but his engine blew out of turn 8 to prematurely end his race.
Marti meanwhile leapt up to sixth from 12th on the grid which became fifth following Mini’s retirement as Durksen overtook Dunne on the opening lap, but the championship leader passed the Paraguayan on lap 3 after Durksen got wide onto the gravel at turn 4.
Once the pit lane opened at the end of lap 6, Martins, Marti and Dunne immediately pitted to switch from super-softs to softs, which paid dividends across the following two laps as Martins jumped Verschoor and Fornaroli for the net lead as the latter also slipped behind Verschoor at his stop.
Marti and Dunne further demoted Fornaroli on lap 10 before Dunne then cleared Marti into turn 3 a lap later.
Just ahead of the trio, Verschoor adapted better to the soft tyre as he reeled in and passed Martins into turn 3 on lap 15 for the net lead.
Martins then lost a net second place to Dunne on lap 23 after the Irishman made a bold late-braking move into turn 4 to pass the Frenchman.
As Fornaroli pitted on lap 9, Maini passed Meguetounif to lead the alternate strategy runners ahead of Montoya, Esterson and Shields, but the two strategies began to collide on lap 188 as Verschoor cleared Shields, who then retired on lap 27 with a mechanical issue.
Montoya then passed Maini on lap 22 for the virtual lead as the pair began to scrap over the race leader position.
Meguetounif was the first alternate strategy runner to pit on lap 30 followed by Montoya and Esterson a lap later, whilst Maini waited until lap 32 to make his stop which gave Verschoor the lead and victory from Dunne.
Fornaroli benefitted from Marti punting the rear of Martins on lap 35 to take third from Crawford and Montoya who mounted a late charge to finish fourth and fifth, ahead of Browning whilst Marti dropped to seventh due to a ten-second penalty for his incident with Martins.
Martins finished eighth ahead of Stanek and Beganovic who completed the top ten, whilst Goethe ended the final lap in the gravel at turn 3 after he collided with Lindblad which sent him airborne over the inside kerb.
Post-race, Dunne was disqualified from second place after his plank failed to meet minimum thickness due to excessive wear, which left 3.37mm and 3.27mm in the designated holes.
Everyone from Fornaroli downwards consequently were promoted a position with the Italian inheriting second from Crawford.
Verschoor now leads the drivers’ standings from Dunne by 24 points following the latter’s disqualification, with Crawford now two further points behind in third ahead of Fornaroli and Browning, as Lindblad’s pair of non top-ten finishes demoted to sixth heading into his home round at Silverstone from 4-6 July.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | 40 | 53m 36.455 |
| 2 | Leonardo Fornaroli | Invicta | 40 | + 9.743 |
| 3 | Jak Crawford | DAMS | 40 | + 17.171 |
| 4 | Sebastian Montoya | PREMA | 40 | + 18.303 |
| 5 | Luke Browning | Hitech GP | 40 | + 19.975 |
| 6 | Pepe Marti | Campos | 40 | + 20.696 |
| 7 | Victor Martins | ART GP | 40 | + 20.744 |
| 8 | Roman Stanek | Invicta | 40 | + 20.952 |
| 9 | Dino Beganovic | Hitech GP | 40 | + 24.021 |
| 10 | Sami Meguetounif | Trident | 40 | + 28.972 |
| 11 | Rafael Villagomez | VAR | 40 | + 36.808 |
| 12 | Arvid Lindblad | Campos | 40 | + 42.303 |
| 13 | Joshua Durksen | AIX Racing | 40 | + 42.449 |
| 14 | John Bennett | VAR | 40 | + 47.973 |
| 15 | Max Esterson | Trident | 40 | + 49.109 |
| 16 | Kush Maini | DAMS | 40 | + 78.706 |
| 17 | Oliver Goethe | MP Motorsport | 39 | + 1 Lap |
| RET | Cian Shields | AIX Racing | 26 | Mechanical |
| RET | Amaury Cordeel | Rodin | 10 | Engine |
| RET | Gabriele Mini | PREMA | 0 | Engine |
| RET | Ritomo Miyata | ART GP | 0 | Mechanical |
| DSQ | Alex Dunne | Rodin | 0 | Plank |