2025 F2 Season Roundup: Round 10 – Hungary

Roundup of the tenth round of the 2025 F2 season as the title fight rumbled on into Budapest, Hungary. 

Just 12 points separated the top five coming into this round but one of the title contenders laid down the gauntlet with a strong weekend after a tough practice session, which blew the title fight more open ahead of the final four rounds after the summer break.

 

Practice

Campos’ Arvid Lindblad was first out on track but it was AIX Racing’s Joshua Durksen who set the initial benchmark time of 1m 50.114, moments before the red flags came out after ART GP’s Ritomo Miyata suffered a mechanical failure at turn 3 on his outlap in the sixth minute.

The session resumed after a five-minute stoppage and Lindblad lowered the benchmark time to 1m 35.308 but the times soon tumbled, as MP Motorsport’s Oliver Goethe set the pace on 1m 31.139 before he found 0.386 seconds on his next flier to go quicker.

Roman Stanek, Alex Dunne and Browning soon exchanged the second fastest lap times, until Browning left it until the final minute to top the session with 1m 30.609 ahead of Goethe and Dunne.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Luke Browning	Hitech GP	1m 30.609
2	Oliver Goethe	MP Motorsport	+ 0.133
3	Alex Dunne	Rodin	+ 0.302
4	Roma Stanek	Invicta	+ 0.309
5	Joshua Durksen	AIX Racing	+ 0.367
6	Victor Martins	ART GP	+ 0.385
7	Arvid Lindblad	Campos	+ 0.388
8	Dino Beganovic	Hitech GP	+ 0.405
9	Richard Verschoor	MP Motorsport	+ 0.435
10	Gabriele Mini	PREMA	+ 0.453
11	Jak Crawford	DAMS	+ 0.598
12	Leonardo Fornaroli	Invicta	+ 0.735
13	Kush Maini	DAMS	+ 0.765
14	Pepe Marti	Campos	+ 0.800
15	Amaury Cordeel	Rodin	+ 0.801
16	Sami Meguetounif	Trident	+ 0.880
17	John Bennett	VAR	+ 0.893
18	Sebastian Montoya	PREMA	+ 0.963
19	Cian Shields	AIX Racing	+ 0.984
20	Rafael Villagomez	VAR	+ 1.098
21	Max Esterson	Trident	+ 1.106
22	Ritomo Miyata	ART GP	No Time

 

Qualifying

Lindblad and Marti led the field out in qualifying and the Brit set the first unrepresentative then representative benchmark times, of which his second lap came in at 1m 30.319 but several drivers went quicker as Stanek found 1.152s to go on provisional pole with 1m 29.167.

Stanek found a further 0.060s to put himself fastest at the halfway mark with 1m 29.107, which his teammate, Fornaroli had to beat after the Italian opted to run his first flier in the gap.

Fornaroli proceeded to lower the benchmark to 1m 28.935 on his first flier but his lap was deleted due to track limits, and he consequently went 0.483s slower on his second lap to slot into fourth.

Stanek though couldn’t be denied his maiden F2 pole after he lowered the pole time to 1m 28.779 in the 23rd minute, but Fornaroli left it until the checkered flag to lock out the front row in second for Invicta.

Title rivals, Crawford and Browning qualified third and fourth ahead of Durksen, Goethe, Martins and Lindblad whilst fellow title challengers, Dunne and Verschoor qualified ninth and 11th respectively sandwiched by Marti who took reverse-pole for the sprint.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Roman Stanek	Invicta	1m 28.779
2	Leonardo Fornaroli	Invicta	+ 0.146
3	Jak Crawford	DAMS	+ 0.173
4	Luke Browning	Hitech GP	+ 0.250
5	Joshua Durksen	AIX Racing	+ 0.313
6	Oliver Goethe	MP Motorsport	+ 0.358
7	Victor Martins	ART GP	+ 0.374
8	Arvid Lindblad	Campos	+ 0.434
9	Alex Dunne	Rodin	+ 0.467
10	Pepe Marti	Campos	+ 0.522
11	Richard Verschoor	MP Motorsport	+ 0.578
12	Gabriele Mini	PREMA	+ 0.625
13	Amaury Cordeel	Rodin	+ 0.640
14	Dino Beganovic	Hitech GP	+ 0.729
15	John Bennett	VAR	+ 0.824
16	Rafael Villagomez	VAR	+ 0.827
17	Ritomo Miyata	ART GP	+ 0.916
18	Sebastian Montoya	PREMA	+ 0.987
19	Sami Meguetounif	Trident	+ 1.023
20	Kush Maini	DAMS	+ 1.147
21	Max Esterson	Trident	+ 1.192
22	Cian Shields	AIX Racing	+ 1.955

 

Sprint Race

At lights out, Marti led Lindblad who had jumped Dunne at the start whilst Crawford got up to fifth ahead of Browning and Fornaroli as Goethe slipped to eighth.

Further back, Stanek was spun at turn 10 by Mini who got a ten-second time penalty for his antics.

Goethe lost a further position on the second lap as his MP Motorsport teammate, Verschoor demoted him to ninth just as the race settled into a holding pattern.

Up front, Lindblad kept Marti under pressure and briefly took the lead at turn 1 on lap 8, only to be repassed by the Spaniard into the next corner.

Dunne meanwhile elected to save his tyres which paid off as he cleared Lindblad on lap 19 on the inside of turn 1 as the Brit began to struggle with his tyre wear.

Marti eventually held off Dunne by 0.225s after he ran wide at turn 5 on the final lap which gave the Irishman a futile shot at victory, only to be squeezed wide on the exit of turn 13.

Crawford rounded out the podium after he benefitted from a wide moment for Lindblad out of turn 3 which allowed him to pass Martins for fourth on lap 20, then Lindblad himself on the final lap.

Stewards however were unimpressed at how Lindblad rejoined the track and declared that he had kept position off track, which resulted in a five-second time penalty to drop him from fourth to 10th in the classification.

Martins consequently inherited fourth after Browning received a five-second time penalty to drop from fifth to 12th after he had defended from Martins off track at turn 8 on the final lap.

Fornaroli, Verschoor, Goethe and Beganovic rounded out the top eight.

Fornaroli consequently extended his title lead over Verschoor to three points with Crawford and Dunne a further three points, whilst Browning slipped 16 points behind in fifth.

Position	Driver	Team	Laps	Time
1	Pepe Marti	Campos	28	46m 29.807
2	Alex Dunne	Rodin	28	+ 0.225
3	Jak Crawford	DAMS	28	+ 1.964
4	Victor Martins	ART GP	28	+ 4.503
5	Leonardo Fornaroli	Invicta	28	+ 5,116
6	Richard Verschoor	MP Motorsport	28	+ 5.271
7	Oliver Goethe	MP Motorsport	28	+ 5.565
8	Dino Beganovic	Hitech GP	28	+ 5.969
9	Kush Maini	DAMS	28	+ 7.039
10	Arvid Lindblad	Campos	28	+ 8.193
11	Joshua Durksen	AIX Racing	28	+ 8.264
12	Luke Browning	Hitech GP	28	+ 8.997
13	Roman Stanek	Invicta	28	+ 9.109
14	Gabriele Mini	PREMA	28	+ 10.564
15	Ritomo Miyata	ART GP	28	+ 11.465
16	Amaury Cordeel	Rodin	28	+ 11.813
17	Sami Meguetounif	Trident	28	+ 12.524
18	Rafael Villagomez	VAR	28	+ 13.374
19	Max Esterson	Trident	28	+ 13.820
20	John Bennett	VAR	28	+ 13.973
21	Cian Shields	AIX Racing	28	+ 20.879
RET	Sebastian Montoya	PREMA	21	Mechanical

 

Feature Race

Damp conditions caused the formation lap to be ran behind the safety car ahead of a rolling start as the top ten held position led by Stanek.

Martins meanwhile suffered a power-related issue on lap two and dropped down to 14th from eighth but the virtual safety car (VSC) was deployed on lap 6 after Cordeel suffered an engine failure on the start-finish straight.

Lindblad was the lead driver on medium tyres as the track came to the alternate strategy runners on lap 8 and managed to clear Goethe and Durksen for sixth.

Mini meanwhile cleared Verschoor and Marti in a double overtake for ninth as the two medium tyre runners scrapped over position.

Martins however stopped out of Turn 12 with power loss on lap 9 which caused a second VSC period for two laps.

Bennett was the first soft-tyre runner to pit for mediums at the end of lap 11 but Browning was the first such frontrunner to pit on lap 15 which forced Stanek and Crawford to cover off his undercut threat on the next lap.

Fornaroli consequently stayed out until the end of lap 16 before he made his stop which allowed him to jump Stanek for the net lead, although he received a five-second time penalty after he sped into the pit lane.

The Italian however was able to hold off Stanek and Crawford and build his five-second gap as he took the race lead on lap 30, which saw him claim his first feature race victory in F2 and third of the season overall, whilst Browning finished fourth.

Fornaroli and Stanek’s one-two finish also saw Invicta clinch their first one-two result since the opening sprint of the 2021 Monaco GP weekend.

Verschoor meanwhile was the first alternate runner to pit for soft tyres on lap 23 which saw him jump Lindblad to finish as the highest-placed alternate strategy drivers in fifth. and sixth respectively.

Beganovic, Goethe, Dunne and Marti rounded out the top ten.

Fornaroli now leads the standings with a 17-point lead over Crawford who moved up to second ahead of Verschoor, whilst Browning jumped Dunne for fourth, as the top five were split by 30 points going into the summer break.

F2 now heads to Monza, Italy, across weekend of 5-7 September for their next round.

Position	Driver	Team	Laps	Time
1	Leonardo Fornaroli	Invicta	37	1h 00m 13.630
2	Roman Stanek	Invicta	37	+ 2.152
3	Jak Crawford	DAMS	37	+ 4.716
4	Luke Browning	Hitech GP	37	+ 6.052
5	Richard Verschoor	MP Motorsport	37	+ 11.505
6	Arvid Lindblad	Campos	37	+ 22.099
7	Dino Beganovic	Hitech GP	37	+ 22.572
8	Oliver Goethe	MP Motorsport	37	+ 23.080
9	Alex Dunne	Rodin	37	+ 23.627
10	Pepe Marti	Campos	37	+ 24.279
11	Kush Maini	DAMS	37	+ 26.401
12	Joshua Durksen	AIX Racing	37	+ 31.075
13	Rafael Villagomez	VAR	37	+ 36.974
14	Sami Meguetounif	Trident	37	+ 38.837
15	Sebastian Montoya	PREMA	37	+ 39.221
16	Cian Shields	AIX Racing	37	+ 43.442
17	Gabriele Mini	PREMA	37	+ 44.619
18	Ritomo Miyata	ART GP	37	+ 48.099
19	Max Esterson	Trident	37	+ 50.885
RET	John Bennett	VAR	14	Suspension
RET	Victor Martins	ART GP	8	Power
RET	Amaury Cordeel	Rodin	5	Power