Richard Verschoor may have gotten a poor start to the Qatar Formula 2 sprint race, but he retook it on lap four and controlled the field through two late safety car restarts to take his record-tying eighth F2 win and keep his title hopes alive. The MP Motorsport driver spoke to Feeder Series and selected media about the win and his final F2 season. 

By Calla Kra-Caskey

“I don’t even like those kind of stats,” Verschoor said in the post-race press conference about tying the record for most F2 victories. “On the other hand, people can say what they want, but I’m proud of it. I’m really proud to have been at this level of autosport. 

“Also this year we are showing what we’re capable of. That was my reason to do another year of Formula 2, being surrounded by big talents. I’m just proud of this team because I think most of the wins come from this year.”

Verschoor took one victory in each of his first four F2 seasons, but he has doubled that total with four wins and counting in 2025. With victory in the penultimate sprint race of his final F2 season, Verschoor matches the career victory totals of 2019 champion Nyck de Vries, 2022 champion Felipe Drugovich and 2017 runner-up Artem Markelov.

“To be fair, I think without all of the disqualifications I should’ve had much more [wins],” Verschoor joked to Feeder Series. The Dutch driver has been disqualified from first place three times – the Spielberg feature race in 2022, the Jeddah sprint in 2024, and the Budapest sprint in 2024. 

“I could feel already from the moment I signed with MP that I was feeling good, and they really helped me improve myself even more as a driver,” he said. “You can always learn more even if you have a lot of experience. And then, on the other hand, they also gave me a good car. And also for me, it’s good to improve my feedback, improve the team, to help improve the car. 

“So I think we did that very well this year. We took a lot of opportunities that we got. Of course I’m far behind now, but I still will fight until the end for the championship.”

Verschoor was well positioned for victory by starting first on a track where overtaking is challenging. Second-place starter Joshua Dürksen, however, got an excellent start, immediately rocketing into the lead, while Nikola Tsolov made up one position on Rafael Villagómez to move into third. 

Leonardo Fornaroli also got a good start, jumping up to eighth and challenging Invicta Racing teammate Roman Staněk for seventh around the outside of Turns 4 and 5. The Czech driver offered the championship leader no reprieve, however, defending hard and taking seventh place back through Turn 7. 

Verschoor refused to let Dürksen escape easily, staying within a second of him until DRS was enabled on lap three. He didn’t quite manage an overtake into Turn 1 on lap three, but on the next lap Verschoor used his speed advantage to overtake around the outside in the same place. 

The race settled down from there, with a DRS train forming behind Staněk that put a damper on the battle for the lower points positions. That included championship challenger Crawford, who had made it from 15th to 11th at the start but got stuck there behind Victor Martins. 

On lap 12, Red Bull juniors Arvid Lindblad and Oliver Goethe got into a scuffle over 14th, with Lindblad barely maintaining the place. Meanwhile, Martins in 10th went wide at the exit of Turn 5, opening the door for Jak Crawford and Dino Beganovic to pass him as he navigated the bollards to get back on track. Gabriele Minì then also passed Martins the next time by at Turn 1 using a switchback manoeuvre. 

Further down the field, title contender Luke Browning, who started 18th, passed Ritomo Miyata for 17th after attempting an overtake around the outside of Turn 1 and sticking with him through the next series of corners. 

A twist came on lap 14, as Laurens van Hoepen pushed Trident teammate James Wharton wide at Turn 1 while disputing 20th, leaving Wharton beached in the gravel. The ensuing safety car prompted Staněk, Lindblad, Goethe, Kush Maini, Browning, John Bennett, and Cian Shields to pit. This created a soft-shod group from 15th to the back of the field, though its membership decreased by one when Maini pulled over to the side of the road shortly afterwards. 

Verschoor maintained his lead on the lap 17 restart, while Van Hoepen was swallowed up by the drivers on softs, falling from 14th to last. Miyata was next to be overtaken by the pack, dropping from 13th to 17th, while his ART teammate Martins overtook Minì for 11th. 

The safety car was deployed again on lap 20 of 23 after Shields spun on the exit of Turn 5, erasing the gap of nearly 2.5 seconds that Verschoor had already built. The race restarted at the end of lap 22, setting up a last-lap shootout. 

“I was definitely not very happy with the safety cars,” Verschoor said, “but I think I kept my head cool. I did two different kinds of restarts and they both worked quite well.” 

Verschoor again nailed the restart, but there was drama behind. Fifth-placed Sebastián Montoya attempted to overtake Villagómez on the inside leading up to Turn 1, but the Van Amersfoort Racing driver was setting up an overtake of his own. He drove around the outside of Tsolov, who attempted to hold firm but steered off into the gravel on the exit of Turn 2 and dropped from third to 10th, outside the points. 

Out front, Verschoor took the chequered flag first for his record-equalling eighth victory in Formula 2, with Dürksen in second and Villagómez in third. Verschoor also took an extra point for setting the fastest lap on lap six. 

All three drivers were confident the strong pace they showed would continue tomorrow.

“In the end, you can do whatever strategy you want, but you need the pace,” Verschoor said. “I think that’s looking good for us. Tomorrow, of course, is completely different in terms of temperature, so I think we will see some big changes in terms of pace. But the game plan I keep to myself for now.” 

“Anything is possible. Especially with the safety cars, I think this will really make the race very interesting,” Dürksen said. “But I’m very confident that for sure we will finish in the points. 

“A podium from P9 is going to be a bit difficult. I’m quite sure the other guys will also be very fast, but I never discard that option because I know in F2, anything can happen.” 

“Definitely we’ve had the pace since free practice, qualifying. And then today I don’t think we were really far off,” Villagómez said. “Of course we can always do better, myself and the team. We just need to look at it, learn from today.” 

“I’m sure we can do a good job,” he added. 

Montoya came in fourth, followed closely by Alex Dunne. Fornaroli took sixth, with Martinius Stenshorne in seventh in his first race for Rodin Motorsport. Crawford, currently second in the championship, picked up a point for eighth. 

Assuming he starts from pole for the feature race tomorrow, Fornaroli will have a 23-point advantage, meaning he must take 17 points more than Crawford to seal the drivers’ championship with a round to spare. To remain in title contention, Verschoor and Browning must not lose more than eight and six points to Fornaroli respectively. Dunne must gain 20 points on the Italian driver, making tomorrow’s race a must-win scenario for the Irishman. 

Invicta currently leads the teams’ title by 17 points from Hitech, making it impossible for them to win this weekend with 44 on offer tomorrow and 65 available at the season finale in Abu Dhabi next weekend. 

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency