Joshua Dürksen repeated his Abu Dhabi feature race success from last year by charging from eighth on the grid to first in Formula 2’s last race of 2025 and his final outing for AIX Racing. The Paraguayan spoke to Feeder Series and selected media about his win and what it means for his 2026 campaign with new teams’ champions Invicta Racing.

By Finjo Muschlien

Though Dürksen had firmly claimed the spotlight by the end of the 33-lap race, the spotlight was hardly on him as he occupied eighth on the grid at the start. The bigger talking point was that during the formation lap, DAMS’ Jak Crawford, who started second, received a 10-second stop-and-go penalty for not having his front wheels fully fitted by the three-minute starting signal, putting his grasp on second in the championship at risk. 

At the start, Invicta Racing’s Roman Staněk kept the lead ahead of Crawford. Hitech’s Dino Beganovic passed champion Leonardo Fornaroli for third as the Italian had a slow start off the line. Beganovic then passed Crawford for second position at Turn 6 later that lap, and Fornaroli dropped another position as a fast-starting Dürksen passed him for fourth position around the outside of Turn 9. 

At the end of the first lap, Crawford pitted to serve his penalty, dropping him to the rear of the field, 30 seconds off 20th-placed Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak. With that, his fight for second in the drivers’ standings was practically out of his hands. 

But then there was a crash at Turn 7 on the second lap. Rodin’s Alex Dunne, who was still distantly in the fight for second in the championship, caused a collision with ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins. The pair spun, and Dunne was collected by AIX Racing’s Cian Shields. All three drivers retired on the spot and a safety car was called. Dunne earned a 10-second penalty for causing the incident, which will not be applied with his retirement or carried forth into 2026, as well as two penalty points on his record, bringing his total for the season to 12.

Accumulating 12 penalty points during the season would earn a driver a one-round ban from the following F2 event, but article 39.3 of the 2025 F2 sporting regulations states that ‘penalty points will remain on a driver’s record until the end of the season[,] after which they will be removed’. An FIA spokesperson reinforced the points’ expiry to Feeder Series, meaning that Dunne will not receive a ban for his next F2 round should he return in 2026 or beyond.

The safety car ended on lap five, just before the pit stop cycle began. Indeed, the first stops came on lap seven, when race leader Staněk, second-placed Beganovic and Gabriele Mini in fifth came in. Beganovic’s teammate Luke Browning also peeled into the pit lane after a strong opening seven laps in which he moved up from 17th to 10th position. Both Beganovic and Browning received a five-second time penalty for speeding in pit lane. 

Four further drivers pitted on lap eight, among them Dürksen, who came out of the pits as the net leader, seconds ahead of Beganovic and Staněk. 

On lap nine, Sebastián Montoya spun entering Turn 12 and retired a few corners later. A virtual safety car was called on lap 10, but the position of his car on the kerb eventually necessitated a full safety car deployment on lap 12. 

Racing action resumed at the end of lap 14. Fornaroli out front locked up and ran wide going into the final corner but kept his lead. 

Net leader Dürksen continued to work his way up the order, passing debutant Inthrapuvasak for eighth on lap 15, Martinius Stenshorne for seventh on lap 19 and Van Amersfoort Racing’s John Bennett for sixth at Turn 6 on lap 21. He made another pass on Tsolov for fifth on lap 24, just ahead of Turn 9. 

Sprint race winner Arvid Lindblad and Fornaroli, running on the alternate strategy, peeled into the pits on lap 30, elevating Dürksen to third. He then passed Verschoor for second position on lap 31 and inherited the lead as Crawford pitted at the end of the lap. With several seconds in hand over his rivals, the 22-year-old had a clear road ahead to take the win.

Dürksen’s result was his second such success in a feature race after his similar victory at the circuit last year. Having made good on his pre-event confidence, he also becomes the first driver in combined F2/GP2 history to win the first and the final race of a season since Stoffel Vandoorne, who did so in his championship-winning 2015 GP2 season.

All of this comes after Dürksen jumped to F2 from two challenging seasons in FRegional Europe in which he took only one podium finish.

“FRECA was one of my toughest moments in my racing career,” Dürksen told Feeder Series in the post-race press conference. “Many doubted, of course, my move to F2. Internally, I knew that the pace I have, the speed I have, I just needed a better package to show it.

“AIX Racing gave me this opportunity. I think we both were underdogs and with a lot of hunger to show the people what we really can do, and I think we showed them last year and especially this year, as well, that we can do great stuff. It has just been a very quick two years. I’m surprised the time went so quickly. But we learned a lot, we grew a lot and we enjoyed a lot our time together.

Beganovic crossed the line in second, but his five-second time penalty demoted him to fourth behind Staněk and Minì. He missed out on the podium by 0.282 seconds.

Oliver Goethe finished fifth, with Rafael Villagómez a strong sixth from 16th on the grid, highlighted by a battle with Browning through the opening sector at the first safety car restart. Kush Maini made up a field-high 13 places to come home seventh, while Ritomo Miyata took his best result since his Spa feature race podium with eighth.

The feature race also decided the teams’ championship in favour of Invicta, who took their second consecutive title thanks to Staněk’s second-place finish after having propelled Fornaroli to the drivers’ title last weekend. Hitech came second with 278 points, 38 points behind Invicta, thanks to Beganovic’s fourth-place finish, while Campos settled for third with 258 points as Lindblad in ninth scored the team’s only two points this race.

Still, Staněk felt more was possible in a race he started from pole position.

“The pit stop and the outlap wasn’t great,” the Czech driver conceded. “That’s where we lost a lot of time, and then it was very difficult to overtake to get in front of the guys who were on the different strategy, so that compromised my tyre management a bit. And therefore I couldn’t be faster.”

Crawford’s early penalty also enlivened the fight for second in the drivers’ championship. Still, he drove a strong recovery race to reach second position on the road on lap 26 with an overtake on Fornaroli at Turn 6. He then set the fastest lap on the final lap, just after pitting.

Though Crawford only finished 10th after his pit stop, his closest rivals went scoreless, ensuring he not only kept second place but extended his advantage over Richard Verschoor to five points. The extra point for fastest lap also put DAMS level with MP Motorsport on 207 points, with the French team claiming fourth place on a tiebreaker.

MP’s Verschoor, who was three points behind Crawford entering the race, finished in 13th position from 11th on the grid, having been limited by the alternate strategy. He ended his fifth year in F2 with 170 points. 

Hitech’s double-stack pit stop, meanwhile, nullified Browning’s strong start. His five-second time penalty for speeding during that pit stop meant he conceded a place in the final results to Verschoor, finishing 14th in the race and fourth overall with 162 points. Dunne’s early-race retirement ensured he would finish no higher than fifth with 150 points, with F1-bound Lindblad ending his sole F2 season on 134 points. 

Race winner Dürksen is confirmed to be returning next year, joining teams’ title winners Invicta alongside reigning F3 champion Rafael Câmara. Of the 22 slots next year, 15 have already been confirmed by drivers with a variety of backgrounds, 10 of whom are set to contest their first full season in F1’s primary feeder series.

“It’s going to be an amazing season also next year,” Dürksen said, “especially driving against Colton Herta, also [Nicolás] Varrone, which is coming from WEC. It’s going to be a different kind of grid next year, so I’m really looking forward to it.”

Additional reporting by Calla Kra-Caskey

Editor’s note, 7 December 2025, 17:58 CET: This article was updated to include confirmation from the FIA that Alex Dunne’s penalty points accrual would not earn him a race ban.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency