Invicta Racing’s Leonardo Fornaroli left it late but landed the blow that mattered most. A final-lap flyer to steal pole from Victor Martins in one of the tightest qualifying sessions of the Formula 2 season so far.
A 1:15.229 was enough. Just 0.014s clear of Martins, and only 0.024s ahead of a surging Richard Verschoor, who had gone purple early but ran wide on his final attempt. The top three were split by barely the blink of an eye, and it didn’t stop there. The entire top ten fell within three tenths of a second.
Fornaroli, who last took pole in Melbourne, has grown in consistency over the European stretch. His Invicta car looked planted on corner exit, and after an early banker, he built steadily across three push laps. His opening flyer, a 1:15.769, briefly held the benchmark before Martins fired in a lap just 0.001s shy.
It was PREMA’s Gabriele Minì who first lit up the timing screens, taking early P1 with a 1:15.888. That was quickly knocked aside by both Fornaroli and Martins, but Minì wasn’t done. He returned late in the session, leaping back into provisional pole with a 1:15.400. Verschoor immediately bettered it, producing a beautifully clean second sector and setting a 1:15.253.
But when the final runs came, with just over two minutes to go and the track rubbered in, things moved fast. Martins hooked up the middle sector again and snuck ahead by a tenth. Then came Fornaroli. Hitting all three apexes through Sector 1, the Italian set up his lap with smooth aggression and held the car tight through Turn 6. That lap, a 1:15.229, put him top and nobody could answer back.
Verschoor’s final flyer looked strong. His MP Motorsport machine carried good speed into the second half of the lap. But a minor error at Turn 9 dropped his delta and left him 0.024s off. P3, with a sense of what might have been.
Behind the lead trio, Minì secured fourth but lost out on a front-row chance after getting caught behind traffic on his final attempt. Rodin Motorsport’s Amaury Cordeel backed up his strong Imola pace with fifth. A season-best performance that continues his late resurgence. Just 0.017s behind him was Roman Staněk, giving Invicta two cars inside the top six.
But the most important save of the day came from Alexander Dunne.
The championship leader had languished in 18th for most of the session, his Rodin car struggling for rear grip on used tyres. With time running out and pressure mounting, Dunne delivered under the weight of expectation. He found over half a second on his final push to go seventh. He outqualified teammate Cordeel for the first time in two rounds and limited the damage on a weekend where pole never looked within reach.
Joshua Dürksen, showing ever-improving pace at AIX Racing, took eighth. The Paraguayan has been quietly building momentum since Barcelona, and his 1:15.480 leaves him firmly in the hunt for Sprint points.
Campos Racing continued their consistent form, with Josep María Martí and Arvid Lindblad both inside the top 12. Martí secured ninth, while Lindblad narrowly missed the reverse-grid cut in 12th. The pair were split by John Bennett, whose tenth place earns him reverse-grid pole for Saturday’s Sprint. A valuable opportunity at a circuit where first-lap launches can define a race.
Sebastián Montoya was just two thousandths off Bennett in 11th, continuing PREMA’s mixed bag this weekend. Ritomo Miyata, in the second ART, ended up 13th, one place ahead of Trident’s Sami Meguetounif.
DAMS drivers Jak Crawford and Kush Maini never looked in contention. They ended 15th and 18th respectively. Between them sat Oliver Goethe, who had one of his stronger Fridays of the year, but still finished over half a second down on Fornaroli.
The real surprise was Hitech. With neither driver inside the top 15, Luke Browning and Dino Beganovic endured a frustrating afternoon. Browning ended 17th, while Beganovic’s off-track excursion at Turn 3 on his final lap dropped him to 21st.
At the back, Cian Shields struggled to hook up a clean lap in the AIX machine and ended up 22nd. Over 1.3s adrift from pole. But with Spielberg’s short lap and close margins, the gaps remain deceptive. Less than four tenths covered P4 to P14.
2025 Spielberg F2 Qualifying – Top 12
- Leonardo Fornaroli – 1:15.229
- Victor Martins – 1:15.243
- Richard Verschoor – 1:15.253
- Gabriele Minì – 1:15.400
- Amaury Cordeel – 1:15.417
- Roman Staněk – 1:15.431
- Alexander Dunne – 1:15.443
- Joshua Dürksen – 1:15.480
- Josep María Martí – 1:15.487
- John Bennett – 1:15.525
- Sebastián Montoya – 1:15.527
- Arvid Lindblad – 1:15.546
What’s next?
With John Bennett starting from pole in Saturday’s Sprint, and Fornaroli starting tenth, there’s plenty of action to come. Keep an eye on Dunne, who needs to minimise risk but can’t afford to go backwards. Fornaroli, meanwhile, has one clear job for Sunday: convert pole into points and close the gap in the standings.
The Formula 2 Sprint begins Saturday at 14:15 local time.
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