The F2 drivers go qualifying for one final time in 2025. Our champion Leonardo Fornaroli has already been settled but the fight for second place, as well as the Team Champion, is still on. The wind proving them a disadvantage, and the temperatures high, let’s see how our drivers faired.
4 Drivers Still in Contention
Mathematically, there are still 4 drivers in with a chance of claiming second place on the championship. Alex Dunne’s high finish in last week’s race keeps him in the running, though he will need a stellar performance this weekend.
Tied currently on 170 points is Jak Crawford and Richard Verschoor, after his great weekend in Qatar. Crawford was fastest in the practice session, looking for a better performance in qualifying than his P15 last week. In the early runs, Crawford shots himself to the top of the field with a 1:37.633.
Luke Browning is the final driver in contention for the P2 spot. He also has a very bad qualifying last weekend and started off Abu Dhabi qualifying with a deleted lap time for track limits. He was the first of the 22 drivers to fall victim to limits. Once he set an acceptable lap, it was still less than impressive.
Track Limits Proving Tricky
As the times kept rolling in, so did the time deletions. The majority of the drivers had lost a lap time by the end of the 30 minute session. This meant that many drivers had their runs compromised as they now had to complete more laps.
Crawford held pole position but that was taken from him after he went off the track at turn 7. Despite this, his later lap attempts showed continuous improvement. For the time being, it was Joshua Dürksen who held provision pole at the midway point. Leonardo Fornaroli held P2 at this point too.
Arvid Lindblad found himself with 10 minutes remaining and nothing on the time board. He found track limits the hardest of the drivers and as his final race in F2, he will want this to be a good one. Lindblad starts next season as the second driver alongside Liam Lawson in F1, racing for Racing Bulls. Campos Racing will want a good performance this weekend from Lindblad and also rookie Nikola Tsolov, in the fight for the Team Championship.
The Final Shootout of The Season
For the last time in 2025, all 22 drivers emerged from the pit lane ready for those flying laps. Lindblad was the first to fire out and he looked very quick. His corners were touching on the limit but nethertheless, his time was momentarily good enough for P1. Sebastian Montoya set an amazing lap that knocked Lindblad down from that top spot but this still wasn’t quick enough.
Crawford had beaten him by 0.007s, but was too beaten by Roman Stanek. Stanek found considerable pace in the middle sector, to claim pole position. So vitally for that championship spot, Jak Crawford will start the feature race in P2 ahead of the championship winner.
Richard Verschoor only managed P12 and crushingly, Luke Browning once again sits in P17. These two will have a lot of work to do in the fight for championship position. The Campos Duo made up the final spots in the top 10, meaning they will start the sprint race on the front row. Alex Dunne just missed out on a top 10 start, qualifying P11.