MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor won the Spielberg feature race to retake the championship lead from Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Dunne, who finished second on the road before being disqualified for a technical infringement. As a result of Dunne’s disqualification, Verschoor now leaves Austria comfortably ahead of the rest of the field in the standings at the season’s halfway point.

By Calla Kra-Caskey

Despite starting from third and seventh, the emerging championship protagonists found their way to the front in the 40-lap feature race. 

“Every time when I’m there, Alex is there,” Verschoor said in the post-session press conference. “So I need to make sure that I do the same. When he’s there, I need to be there. But looks like the orange cars are quite quick this year!” 

But after the race, Dunne was disqualified for having a front plank thickness that did not comply with the limitations set out in the F2 technical regulations. The stewards’ document announcing Dunne’s disqualification said that the team “could not offer any explanation as to why the thickness of the plank assembly … was below the minimum permitted thickness of 4mm at two of the three positions”. Per the technical delegates’ report, the plank thickness was 3.37mm and 3.27mm at the two designated holes where the violations were found to have occurred.

Prior to his disqualification, Dunne had finished 1.181 seconds behind Verschoor and had been six points behind him in the standings. While he remains in the same position in the points, he now has a 24-point deficit to the Dutchman, with Jak Crawford just two points behind him.

“Myself and Richard were clearly the quickest. I think we were pretty far ahead of anyone else,” Dunne said after the race and before the disqualification. “So I think the fact we’re first and second in the championship, and with pace like that and fighting against each other, is pretty cool to see.” 

Polesitter Leonardo Fornaroli of Invicta Racing maintained his lead into the first corner, while Victor Martins got a slow start from second and was passed by Verschoor. 

Several drivers had early issues. Gabriele Minì, who also passed Martins into Turn 1 but lost the position on exit, suffered an engine issue and had to retire from the race on the first lap. Joshua Dürksen and Sebastián Montoya, who started eighth and 10th, each seemed to slow and lost several places in quick succession during the early laps, but both later recovered. Amaury Cordeel also retired with an engine issue on lap 11. 

Martins was the first driver to make his mandatory pit stop, swapping his supersofts for softs on lap six and emerging in 16th. Verschoor pitted on the next lap from second, emerging behind Martins, and when Fornaroli pitted from the lead on lap eight he came out behind both. 

“[The team] told me that there was some mess in the pit lane, so I wanted to avoid what happened in Imola,” Fornaroli said. “Because we all pitted at the same time, I got stuck for a long time and lost my grid position.”

“At the end, it was not the right decision, but I’m happy I took it.” 

Fornaroli lost two further places to Pepe Martí and Dunne at Turns 4 and 6 on lap 10, falling to 10th and net fifth on track. Dunne passed Martí for eighth on track and net third at Turn 4 the next lap, while on lap 14, Fornaroli re-passed Martí to put himself back in the podium fight. 

On lap 15, Verschoor caught up to net leader Martins and moved to his inside into Turn 3. Martins got the switchback to pull ahead on exit, but Verschoor managed to make the overtake stick at Turn 4. He steadily extended his gap over Martins and escaped from DRS range on lap 19. 

Dunne then caught up to Martins and passed him heading into Turn 4 of lap 23, though the pair made light contact on exit. Dunne has since been summoned to the stewards for forcing Martins off track. A decision has not been released at the time of publication.

Montoya, meanwhile, made steady progress through the drivers who started on soft tyres despite nursing bent steering from a damaged suspension. He passed Maini for the lead at Turn 4 of lap 22 and held it until he pitted on lap 30, emerging in 14th. 

A battle emerged with nine laps to go between Martins, Fornaroli, and Martí for third. On lap 33, Fornaroli passed Martins for third around the outside before Turn 3, giving Martins DRS for the run to Turn 4, where he retook the position. Fornaroli attempted to pass Martins again into Turn 3 on the next lap but instead dropped behind Martí on exit. 

On lap 35, Martí ran into the back of Martins on the run to Turn 4, nudging him to the edge of the track and enabling Fornaroli to pass the both of them. Martí ended up ahead of Martins as well, and Luke Browning, who had caught up with the trio in a recovery drive from 17th, then overtook Martins with DRS the next lap at Turn 3. 

Martins remained close to Browning until lap 38, when Crawford, who started 15th, caught up to the pair. Crawford went around the outside of Turn 3 and then cut to the inside, and both he and Martins went past Browning. The DAMS driver overtook Martins on the next lap at Turn 2. 

Using his supersoft tyres, Montoya rose through the pack and passed Browning entering the final corner of the penultimate lap. Martins then went wide on the exit of Turn 1, helping both Montoya and Browning past in the following corners. 

A last-lap incident involving Red Bull juniors Ollie Goethe and Arvid Lindblad sent Goethe flying across the sausage kerb at Turn 3 and left him stranded in the gravel trap. But Goethe’s MP teammate Verschoor was undeterred, crossing the line just over a second ahead of Dunne.

The Dutchman said the race was closer than it appeared even though there was no on-track battle for the lead between the pair. 

“Alex definitely didn’t make my life easy today,” he said. “Even though the gap maybe seemed big … we both are going flat out, and any mistake would give him any motivation to push more. So I tried to hang on even though the rears were degrading quite a bit for me.

Dunne also said he was happy with his race, especially after having started seventh because of a difficult qualifying session. 

“I seem to like making my life difficult,” he told Feeder Series. 

“When you have such strong pace in the car and in myself, coming through the field is not easy, but it makes your life much easier. Especially with the deg and the deficit between the cars, when you have strong pace naturally, it makes it a little bit easier because when the car in front of you is struggling with tyres, at one point or another you’re going to end up getting past. 

“I think it shows good things for F2. We’re able to race well. Pretty much every race weekend we’ve had some good moves and some good racing, which is good to see. Especially as young drivers, you want to learn how to race and race one another, and I think that’s a good skill to learn and develop.” 

Fornaroli finished second, 9.743s off the lead. Martí crossed the line fourth, but a 10-second penalty for his collision with Martins dropped him to seventh – eventually sixth – behind Crawford, Montoya, and Browning. Martins, Roman Staněk, Dino Beganovic and Sami Meguetounif rounded out the points, while Montoya took an extra point for fastest lap, which he set on lap 33. 

With seven of 14 rounds completed, Verschoor has 114 points, ahead of Dunne on 90, Crawford on 88, Fornaroli on 86, Browning on 83 and Lindblad on 79. In the teams’ standings, Campos Racing leads with 146 points ahead of MP on 126, Hitech on 114, DAMS on 109 and Invicta likewise on 109.

Editor’s note, 29 June 2025, 15:00 CEST: This article was updated after publication to reflect that original second-place finisher Alex Dunne had been disqualified for a technical infringement, elevating all drivers behind him by one position in the final classification.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency