Formula 2 report: Cruel penalty denies Dunne Spa win

Dunne drove flawlessly throughout, holding off the likes of Roman Stanek and Ritomo Miyata to triumph in treacherous conditions while his title rivals floundered. However, the Irishman’s joy at taking top spot in the F2 championship was short-lived. Stewards soon found that he’d breached Article 1.6 of the regulations around starting procedure.

This saw Dunne hit with a penalty and demoted to ninth position (a net loss of 23 valuable points). Things got even more farcical shortly after when Arvid Lindblad, who’d inherited first place from Dunne, was outright disqualified from the race for tyre pressure breaches.

By the time fans had turned their attention to Piastri’s impressive Formula 1 win, Stanek had been handed the victory. Speaking to the media before this bizarre situation unfolded, the 21-year-old said he “really enjoyed” the race but wished he’d pushed a bit harder in a late post-pit stop scrap with Dunne, where he could’ve earned first place on merit instead.

On-track, Dunne may have won from pole. But Sunday’s Feature Race was far from plain sailing. After Formula 3 didn’t really get going in the soaking wet, F2’s main event started under a safety car. While most cars tiptoed off the start, Dunne tore off into the distance.

Initially, the Irishman’s pace impressed, but he quickly burned up his tyres on a fast-drying circuit. This allowed Miyata, who seemingly preserved his rubber better, to close in and pile on the pressure before the first pitstop phase. Crucially though, Dunne held on.

While the likes of Lindblad, Leonardo Fornaroli, and Richard Verschoor all had big moments in Eau Rouge, Luke Browning put on yet another comeback display. Despite qualifying 12th, the young Brit fought his way through, at one stage putting himself into contention for the win. A spin on the pit exit all but ended these hopes, but he still managed an eventual podium.

After the pit stops, even more drama unfolded. Oliver Goethe stayed out and backed Dunne into Stanek, who couldn’t quite take advantage. An in-form Sebastian Montoya then spun twice at Eau Rouge before Goethe’s engine blow-out red-flagged the race.

At the time, this seemed to have handed an important victory to Dunne, with his title rivals struggling. Instead, he's now racked up penalties worth 44 points this season. And he was allowed to finish the whole race before facing punishment, harsh!

From the outset, Saturday’s Sprint was a tantalizing prospect. The likes of Verschoor, Brown, Montoya, Josh Durksen, and Jak Crawford had all suffered in qualifying—and this jumbled-up grid didn’t disappoint. Fornaroli snatched the lead from Goethe right away at T1.

As he scampered off and built a gap, Crawford, Browning, and Verschoor went three-wide, sending the former into the gravel trap and the latter into a big spin up Eau Rouge. Dunne made good early ground, snatching eighth from Miyata at the resulting restart, but Gabriel Mini shut the door on an overtake at the Brussels hairpin, and he stalled from there onwards.

In the Sprint’s second half, everyone went into tyre-saving mode—except for Victor Martins that is. Like Miyata in the Feature Race, the Frenchman had kept his rubber in better condition and lapped seven tenths faster than anyone else for 2-3 laps. However, his late run came to an abrupt halt when home favorite Amaury Cordeel crashed into him while defending into T5.

In-race, Martins summed the incident up perfectly, saying: “He crashed himself.” It was a move for second place; the Belgian should’ve weighed up whether it was worth losing a podium. The end of the race was similarly dramatic. The likes of Dunne and Pepe Marti pitted under the safety car for fresh tyres and had immense speed, but got caught up in an entertaining four-way battle with Goethe and Stanek.

Ultimately, this nerfed the pace advantage of the fresh tyre runners and handed Fornaroli the Sprint Race victory. After he ended a three-year winless streak in Silverstone, the Italian F3 champion looks to be peaking at the right time as we enter the title run-in.

Following the Feature Race, Dunne spoke of ​​Spa being “an important race” for his title tilt, given that “the majority of his really close championship rivals” started further back. As it happened, the Irishman was stripped of the win, and he was proven absolutely right.

With just five rounds left, Fornaroli now leads the overall standings for the first time. Verschoor, the series’ most experienced driver (who’s actually older than Oscar Piastri), is just three points back in second. Crawford, Browning, and Dunne are all right there too, although the latter is surely asking himself why he’s not top of the pile by a distance.

Without a huge turn in form, Red Bull juniors Lindblad and Marti are now too far back to mount a serious title challenge. But you could make a case for any of the top five winning this year’s championship. Further down the order, many drivers are also members of academies, so they continue to audition for a future seat in F1.

This weekend, F2 continues to follow the F1 circus around Europe, visiting the Hungaroring from 01-03 August, 2025. Stay tuned for full coverage of the title battle as it unfolds!