Roundup of the penultimate round of the 2025 F2 season in Qatar as the title fight reached its crescendo.
Leonardo Fornaroli arrived in Qatar with a 19-point championship lead over Jak Crawford, with Luke Browning, Richard Verschoor and Alex Dunne still in mathematical contention at the start of the double-header to conclude the season.
A dominant weekend however saw any hopes of a final-round decider vanquish as Fornaroli continued his consistent run to wrap up the title.
Practice
ART GP’s Victor Martins and Ritomo Miyata were first on track but it was Crawford who set the first initial benchmark time of 1m 54.375 in the eighth minute, only for Martins to go 1.654 seconds quicker a minute later.
Times quickly began to tumble as the track evolution ramped up with Browning, Fornaroli and Verschoor eventually heading the order at the halfway mark, as Browning sat top on 1m 39.285 and just 0.057s clear of Fornaroli.
Fornaroli however lowered the benchmark time in the 26th minute to 1m 39.064 then found 0.408s at the checkered flag to top the session from Dino Beganovic by 0.104s, with the latter confirmed to return to F2 next season and re-join DAMS with whom he made his debut at the end of last season.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Leonardo Fornaroli | Invicta | 1m 38.656 |
| 2 | Dino Beganovic | Hitech GP | + 0.104 |
| 3 | Alex Dunne | Rodin | + 0.602 |
| 4 | Luke Browning | Hitech GP | + 0.629 |
| 5 | Roman Stanek | Invicta | + 0.638 |
| 6 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | + 0.702 |
| 7 | Oliver Goethe | MP Motorsport | + 0.728 |
| 8 | Martinius Stenshorne | Rodin | + 0.837 |
| 9 | Rafael Villagomez | VAR | + 0.839 |
| 10 | Jak Crawford | DAMS | + 1.141 |
| 11 | Kush Maini | DAMS | + 1.151 |
| 12 | John Bennett | VAR | + 1.180 |
| 13 | Sebastian Montoya | PREMA | + 1.185 |
| 14 | Victor Martins | ART GP | + 1.191 |
| 15 | Ritomo Miyata | ART GP | + 1.204 |
| 16 | Gabriele Mini | PREMA | + 1,278 |
| 17 | Arvid Lindblad | Campos | + 1.359 |
| 18 | Nikola Tsolov | Campos | + 1.431 |
| 19 | Cian Shields | AIX Racing | + 1.683 |
| 20 | Joshua Durksen | AIX Racing | + 1.864 |
| 21 | James Wharton | Trident | + 2.025 |
| 22 | Laurens van Hoepen | Trident | + 2.181 |
Qualifying
Martins and Miyata again were first out on track and it was the former who set the initial benchmark time of 1m 56.592 as everyone switched to the soft tyre for Qualifying, of which Fornaroli topped the first stint with 1m 37.850 ahead of Crawford and Stanek.
Fornaroli further cemented his provisional pole with 1m 36.996 on his second flier as Stanek leapfrogged Crawford into second position amongst the initial top-three runners, although Goethe surprisingly went second and 0.075s off Fornaroli’s time in the 14th minute.
At the start of the final runs, Beganovic briefly displaced Fornaroli with 1m 36.826 but the Italian hit back with 1m 36.307 to go back onto provisional pole, which he further consolidated with 1m 36.155 in the final minute.
Goethe however saved his best lap until the checkered flag when he produced 1m 36.115 to snatch his maiden F2 feature race pole by 0.040s from the Italian.
Fornaroli however was promoted back onto pole position after Goethe received three-place grid penalties for both races, having impeded Stenshorne at Turn 6 during the session.
Goethe consequently fell to fourth on the feature race grid with Martins and Stanek promoted to second and third, whilst Dunne secured the fifth grid slot ahead of Montoya, debutant – Tsolov, Villagomez, Durksen and Verschoor who inherited reverse-pole for the sprint.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Oliver Goethe | MP Motorsport | 1m 36.115 |
| 2 | Leonardo Fornaroli | Invicta | + 0.040 |
| 3 | Victor Martins | ART GP | + 0.170 |
| 4 | Roman Stanek | Invicta | + 0.230 |
| 5 | Alex Dunne | Rodin | + 0.327 |
| 6 | Sebastian Montoya | PREMA | + 0.626 |
| 7 | Nikola Tsolov | Campos | + 0.649 |
| 8 | Rafael Villagomez | VAR | + 0.651 |
| 9 | Joshua Durksen | AIX Racing | + 0.658 |
| 10 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | + 0.678 |
| 11 | Dino Beganovic | Hitech GP | + 0.711 |
| 12 | Martinius Stenshorne | Rodin | + 0.772 |
| 13 | John Bennett | VAR | + 0.919 |
| 14 | Gabriele Mini | PREMA | + 0.924 |
| 15 | Jak Crawford | DAMS | + 1.057 |
| 16 | Ritomo Miyata | ART GP | + 1.079 |
| 17 | Arvid Lindblad | Campos | + 1.202 |
| 18 | Luke Browning | Hitech GP | + 1.219 |
| 19 | Cian Shields | AIX Racing | + 1.983 |
| 20 | Kush Maini | DAMS | + 2.088 |
| 21 | James Wharton | Trident | + 2.782 |
| 22 | Laurens van Hoepen | Trident | + 2.918 |
Sprint Race
At lights out, Verschoor got a slow getaway which gave Durksen the lead whilst Villagomez held off Tsolov for third.
Durksen however couldn’t create a crucial one-second gap to break the DRS range to Verschoor and the Paraguayan consequently was passed by the Dutchman into Turn 1 on lap 4 for the lead.
The race subsequently quietened down until Trident’s Laurens van Hoepen and James Wharton collided at Turn 1 on lap 14, which eliminated the latter in his first F2 race, and caused a three-lap safety car period under which Stanek, Lindblad Goethe, Bennett, Browning, Maini and Shields pitted.
Racing resumed on lap 17 but was redeployed on lap 20 after Shields spun out at Turn 5 but was withdrawn on the penultimate lap for a last-lap shootout.
Verschoor however fought off Durksen for his fourth victory of the season whilst Villagomez clung on to third for his second podium in F2, having survived a last-lap scrap with Tsolov who slipped to tenth at the checkered flag after he ran wide at Turn 2.
Montoya benefitted from that incident to inherit fourth from Dunne, Fornaroli, Stenshorne and Crawford who rounded out the top eighth,
Fornaroli extended his title lead to 21 points ahead of Crawford whilst Verschoor’s win lifted him up to third ahead of Browning and Dunne.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | 23 | 42m 36.481 |
| 2 | Joshua Durksen | AIX Racing | 23 | + 0.970 |
| 3 | Rafael Villagomez | VAR | 23 | + 1.607 |
| 4 | Sebastian Montoya | PREMA | 23 | + 2.120 |
| 5 | Alex Dunne | Rodin | 23 | + 2.347 |
| 6 | Leonardo Fornaroli | Invicta | 23 | + 2.880 |
| 7 | Martinius Stenshorne | Rodin | 23 | + 3.933 |
| 8 | Jak Crawford | DAMS | 23 | + 4.265 |
| 9 | Dino Beganovic | Hitech GP | 23 | + 4.548 |
| 10 | Nikola Tsolov | Campos | 23 | + 6.490 |
| 11 | Victor Martins | ART GP | 23 | + 6.737 |
| 12 | Gabriele Mini | PREMA | 23 | + 7.030 |
| 13 | Roman Stanek | Invicta | 23 | + 7.399 |
| 14 | Oliver Goethe | MP Motorsport | 23 | + 7.728 |
| 15 | John Bennett | VAR | 23 | + 8.312 |
| 16 | Ritomo Miyata | ART GP | 23 | + 8.948 |
| 17 | Luke Browning | Hitech GP | 23 | + 9.959 |
| 18 | Arvid Lindblad | Campos | 23 | + 10.068 |
| 19 | Laurens van Hoepen | Trident | 23 | + 20.164 |
| RET | Cian Shields | AIX Racing | 19 | Spin |
| RET | Kush Maini | DAMS | 14 | Mechanical |
| RET | James Wharton | Trident | 13 | Collision |
Feature Race
Fornaroli lost the lead to Martins off the line whilst Dunne cleared Goethe for fourth behind third-placed Stanek albeit with a squeeze on the British-German through Turn 2.
Tsolov meanwhile passed Montoya for sixth whilst Durksen and Verschoor demoted Villagomez to tenth, but Villagomez repassed Verschoor by the end of the opening lap.
Durksen then ran wide out of the final corner on lap 3 which allowed Villagomez and Verschoor to pass him on the next two laps, whilst Dunne cleared Stanek on lap 5 for third position.
The pit window for soft-tyre runners opened at the end of lap six which saw Fornaroli and Dunne immediately pit for hard tyres, whilst Martins followed suit a lap later and still rejoined ahead of Fornaroli and Dunne as the trio were split by 2.4s once he had two laps to warm up the hard tyres.
Beganovic meanwhile built a lengthy lead over Lindblad until the safety car was deployed on lap 15 after Goethe pulled over with a mechanical failure.
The safety car however was withdrawn at the end of lap 16 before everyone could catch up whilst Lindblad, Maini and Shields had made early stops for soft tyres on the alternative strategy which backfired due to the fast degradation of the tyres.
Martins however was able to catch onto the back of Van Hoepen but struggled to pass the Dutchman which allowed Fornaroli to reel him in come lap 26.
Up front, Beganovic pitted from the lead on lap 28 and rejoined 12th in the order whilst Van Hoepen pitted a lap later but slowed out of the final corner, which backed Martins further into the clutches of Fornaroli in the closing laps.
Martins however managed to keep Fornaroli at bay for victory whilst the Italian secured the F2 title with a round to spare which made him the fifth driver to achieve consecutive F3 and F2 titles, and the first to do so without backing of a F1 team.
Dunne overcame a five-second time penalty for an unsafe release to finish third ahead of Lindblad.
Montoya, Verschoor, Tsolov, Stanek, Beganovic and Browning rounded out the top ten.
Fornaroli now held an unassailable 41-point lead over Verschoor and Crawford who will now battle for the vice-champion honour in Abu Dhabi, with Browning a further seven points back whilst Dunne is only a further 21 points behind in fifth.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Victor Martins | ART GP | 32 | 55m 18.455 |
| 2 | Leonardo Fornaroli | Invicta | 32 | + 1.265 |
| 3 | Alex Dunne | Rodin | 32 | + 7.439 |
| 4 | Arvid Lindblad | Campos | 32 | + 8.703 |
| 5 | Sebastian Montoya | PREMA | 32 | + 10.105 |
| 6 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | 32 | + 12.362 |
| 7 | Nikola Tsolov | Campos | 32 | + 15.959 |
| 8 | Roman Stanek | Invicta | 32 | + 17.979 |
| 9 | Dino Beganovic | Hitech GP | 32 | + 18.487 |
| 10 | Luke Browning | Hitech GP | 32 | + 23.535 |
| 11 | Jak Crawford | DAMS | 32 | + 28.151 |
| 12 | Rafael Villagomez | VAR | 32 | + 32.691 |
| 13 | Gabriele Mini | PREMA | 32 | + 33.196 |
| 14 | Joshua Durksen | AIX Racing | 32 | + 35.889 |
| 15 | Martinius Stenshorne | Rodin | 32 | + 37.092 |
| 16 | Kush Maini | DAMS | 32 | + 37.748 |
| 17 | John Bennett | VAR | 32 | + 41.585 |
| 18 | Laurens van Hoepen | Trident | 32 | + 42.714 |
| 19 | James Wharton | Trident | 32 | + 54.320 |
| 20 | Cian Shields | AIX Racing | 32 | + 97.336 |
| RET | Oliver Goethe | MP Motorsport | 14 | Mechanical |
| RET | Ritomo Miyata | ART GP | 7 | Wheel |
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