F2 Abu Dhabi Sprint Race: Lindblad Holds His Nerve as Duerksen Closes In

Arvid Lindblad kept his line. Kept his pace. And kept Joshua Duerksen just far enough behind to win a tight Sprint under the Yas Marina lights. It never turned into a full-on fight. It didn’t need to. Lindblad controlled the moments that mattered and carried Campos into Sunday with momentum that now feels bigger than just a Sprint win.

Key Points – F2 Abu Dhabi GP 2025 Sprint Race

• Lindblad leads every lap to take his third win of the year.
• Duerksen applies pressure late but stays just out of range.
• Tsolov scores his first Formula 2 podium after a clean drive to third.
• Beganovic breaks Goethe after two attempts into Turn 9.
• Fornaroli handed a 10 second penalty and drops from P11 to P17.
• Lindblad’s win arrives days after confirmation he will step up with Racing Bulls in Formula 1.

Start and early laps

The launch said plenty. Lindblad nailed the getaway and blocked off the inside into Turn 1. Duerksen followed him through. Martins lost ground immediately and slipped from third to sixth by the end of the opening lap as Beganovic pressed the advantage.

The lead pair stretched free by Lap 2. Duerksen set the early fastest lap to stay honest. Behind them the race fanned out. Montoya’s start dissolved within seconds. A bold move into Turn 6 pulled him back into the midfield scrap as he cleared Browning for P16. Tsolov ran a quiet early phase in third and eased the gap to the front.

VSC pause

The first stoppage arrived when Bennett’s VAR entry came to a halt at Turn 5. The Virtual Safety Car flattened the rhythm and froze the margins for a moment. Racing resumed on Lap 9 and Duerksen attacked immediately. His dive toward Turn 12 was committed but overcooked. He missed the apex and dropped out of DRS, giving Lindblad space to breathe again.

From there the pack fell into tyre management. Mediums needed nursing to the flag and the field settled into a tempo that offered few easy moves.

Midfield fights

Fourth place became the flashpoint. Goethe absorbed everything Beganovic threw at him for most of the middle phase. Two goes at Turn 9. One rebuffed. One finally clean as Beganovic looped the car around the outside and completed the move on Lap 17.

Martins drove a defensive race he never truly escaped. Dunne, Minì and Crawford sat on his gearbox for laps. Dunne tried Turn 9 and was shut out. Minì faded. Crawford built momentum and cleared them one by one, then set up another move on Martins.

Lap 20 brought the only real contact. Crawford dived at Turn 6, touched Martins and damaged his front wing. Somehow the DAMS car held on to sixth. Race Control neutralised things for a second time to remove the debris.

Final laps

Duerksen regrouped. With the track green again he brought the gap down and forced Lindblad to drive a perfect defensive rhythm. The margin was 1.1 seconds at the start of Lap 22. One mistake would have flipped the whole story. Lindblad didn’t offer it. He managed the traffic. Managed the entry speeds. Managed the exit phases that have caught others out this weekend.

The final lap began with nine-tenths between them. Duerksen had DRS but never got close enough to force a defensive line. Lindblad crossed the line to seal his third win of the season. Tsolov completed the podium with a composed drive to third.

Beganovic finished fourth after finally breaking Goethe. Crawford recovered to sixth. Martins took seventh. Dunne rounded out the points.

Post-race penalty

Fornaroli’s night changed after the race. A review of his defence against Verschoor at Turn 6 confirmed he had left the track, held the position and gained a lasting advantage. The Stewards issued a 10 second penalty that dropped him from P11 to P17.

Sprint Race Result

Championship picture

Fornaroli remains on 211 as the already confirmed champion. Crawford moves into second on 173 with Verschoor three points behind on 170. Browning stays fourth. Dunne completes the top five.

The Teams’ standings tighten ahead of the finale. Invicta lead on 297. Hitech sit on 266. Campos remain in striking distance on 255. Sunday decides everything.

Coffee Corner Take

Lindblad didn’t just bank a Sprint win. He delivered the sort of performance a newly confirmed Racing Bulls driver needs at the end of a long season. The timing matters. The pressure around him shifted this week and eyes were on how he handled it. This was the response. A clean launch. A controlled rhythm. No spikes in pace. No panic when Duerksen reeled him back in. It was the kind of measured Saturday drive that hints at who he could become in Formula 1, not just who he has been in Formula 2.

Duerksen pushed him hard enough to shape the race without ever tipping it into chaos. The Turn 12 moment looked like the point the Sprint might slip away, but he regrouped and came again. He turned a mistake into motivation and forced Lindblad to hold every apex to the finish.

Tsolov’s podium carried plenty of meaning too. A first rostrum. A clean one. The sort of quiet, disciplined drive Campos needed to stay alive in the Teams’ fight. He never looked flustered, even as the pack shifted behind him.

Beganovic and Goethe became the heartbeat of the midfield. Two moves at Turn 9. One forced wide. One timed to perfection. Goethe defended well until the tyres tipped away from him and Beganovic finally pushed the door open.

Crawford’s recovery echoed the broader arc of his season. Even with contact. Even with damage. He found a way back into the points. Martins never saw clean air long enough to show his baseline pace. And Dunne turned a defensive evening into a point that may yet matter for Rodin.

Then came Fornaroli’s penalty. It doesn’t touch his Drivers’ crown, but it drops him when Invicta needed every scrap to protect their margin. It feeds into the tension that now sits under the final day of the season.

One race remains. The title is done, but the Teams’ Championship is not. Invicta, Hitech, Campos. Three squads within reach of the last trophy of 2025. Lindblad’s win keeps the door wide open. Yas Marina will close it tomorrow.