F2: Joshua Durksen wins Saturday's sprint
At the beginning of the season, the concentration of various kinds of problems of one kind or another is perhaps maximum, and sometimes they affect not only the work of individual teams or riders, but also affect entire series. This is exactly what happened at the first stage of the Formula 2 season.
On Friday, it turned out that several cars had the same engine problems that suddenly lost power, and this, of course, affected speed. Before yesterday's Formula 2 qualifying, a solution was tried, but the problem was only partially fixed.
In this situation, the FIA, together with the organizers of the youth series and all Formula 2 teams, made every possible effort to fully understand the problem. In particular, the schedule for the Australian weekend has been adjusted: a 15-minute session was added to it, which took place this morning, so that the teams could check everything properly before the start of Saturday's sprint.
Leonardo Fornaroli, the reigning Formula 3 champion who currently competes in F2 for the Invicta Racing team, started from pole position in a short race lasting 23 laps. Yesterday, at the end of qualifying, the 20-year-old Italian made a mistake, his car turned around, and in the end he showed only the 10th result, but this allowed him to start the sprint from the most favorable position.
Next to his yellow Dallara, Joshua Durksen's car was on the front row of the starting field, and Luke Browning and Dino Beganovic, Hitech teammates, started the race from the second row. At the same time, Luke is part of the Williams youth program, and Dino cooperates with Ferrari.
At the start, Fornaroli could not hold his position: Durksen, the Paraguayan AIX Racing driver, started off better and immediately beat him. Leonardo tried to win back in the first corners, but it didn't work out.
In the very first laps, Victor Martin, the winner of yesterday's qualifying, pulled out of the race: the ART racer could not keep the car on the track in turn 5, caught the barriers and had to stop on the side of the road due to a broken suspension of the rear left wheel. By the way, this was preceded by contact with Roman Stanek's car in the first seconds after the start, which caused Viktor to be sidelined and lose several positions.
The virtual safety car mode was introduced, but on the 4th lap the fight on the track resumed. Durksen rode ahead almost a second away from Fornaroli, who was being chased by Browning and Richard Fershor. Beganovich rounded out the top five, who did not start well, Stanek was sixth, but on lap 5 Dino was ahead of Roman, regaining one of the lost positions.
Sebastian Montoya, the 19-year-old son of Juan Pablo Montoya and a Formula 2 debutant, was seventh.
On lap 6, a real safety car appeared on the track – this was due to the departure of American Max Esterson, a debutant of the Trident team, who simply did not calculate the speed at the entrance to the turn and lost control of the car.
The appearance of the safety car leveled the gaps, the peloton thickened again. The restart was given only on lap 11. Durksen immediately tried to pull away from Fornaroli, and he succeeded: by the 12th lap, the gap exceeded one second.
Beganovich decided to attack Fershor, but lost the car in turn 10 and it spun around. The Swede was lucky, he was able to stay on the track and didn't hit anyone, although he rolled back to a distant 17th position.
On lap 14, yellow flags appeared on the track once again and the safety car pulled out again, this time due to the departure of Sami Megetunifa, another Trident debutant, in the same 10th corner. Thus, both cars of the Italian team came off.
The peloton drove the next couple of laps behind the safety car, but on lap 17 another restart was given. Durksen accelerated very dynamically again, and his lead quickly grew to more than a second. Deep in the peloton, Beganovich regained his position and rode 15th.
On lap 19, Gabriele Mini tried to get ahead of Montoya, his Prema teammate, but Sebastian defensively held on to 6th place.
Three laps before the finish, Durksen pulled away from Fornaroli by one and a half seconds, and it became clear that the Paraguayan racer was already on his way to his third victory in Formula 2.
There were no special events on the track at the final stage of the sprint, although Montoya tried to get closer to Roman Stanek's car and was ready to attack if the opportunity presented itself. But I still didn't introduce myself, although finishing sixth in the debut F2 race is also quite a worthy result.
But, of course, Joshua Durksen deserved praise first of all: it was he who ended last season with a victory in Abu Dhabi, and he also started the 2025 championship with a victory in the sprint in Melbourne - to the sincere delight of the Paraguayan fans and the AIX Racing team. The first thing he did after the finish line was to take a picture at his car with the flag of Paraguay in his hands.
Leonardo Fornaroli finished second, and Luke Browning took third place. Richard Fershor, Roman Stanek, Sebastian Montoya, Gabriele Mini and Pepe Marti drove the race quite confidently and also scored the first points of the season. Unlike Sunday's race, only the top eight get points on Saturday. But the Mini earned another bonus point for the best lap.
Sprint results
Pilot
Team
Difference
1. D. Durksen
AIX Racing
41'30.202
2. L.Fornaroli
Invicta Racing
+2.198
3. L.Browning
Hitech GP
+2.879
4. Fershor river
MP Motorsport
+3.585
5. P.Stanek
Invicta Racing
+4.153
6. S.Montoya
Prema
+4.611
7. G.Mini
Prema
+4.877
8. X.Marty
Campos Racing
+5.486
9. A.Dunne
Rodin Motorsport
+9.776
10. A.Lindblad
Campos Racing
+10.775
11. O.Goethe
MP Motorsport
+11.021
12. R.Miata
ART Grand Prix
+12.245
13. R.Villagomes
Van Amersfoort Racing
+13.403
14. D.Beganovich
Hitech GP
+15.699
15. A.Kordil
Rodin Motorsport
+16.744
16. K.Maini
DAMS
+20.120
17. K. Shields
AIX Racing
+21.976
18. D.Bennett
Van Amersfoort Racing
+26.454
– S.Megetunif
Trident
The gathering
– M.Esterson
Trident
The gathering
– D. Crawford
DAMS
gathering
– V.Martin
ART Grand Prix
The gathering
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