Following a chaotic and penalty riddled Qualifying and Sprint Race, the F2 grid takes to the streets of Baku for the Azerbaijan GP Feature Race. Currently, there is a 17 point difference between Leonardo Fornaroli on 178 points and Luke Browning in the Drivers’ Championship with 161 points.
Dino Beganovic also secured his maiden Formula 2 victory in the F2 Azerbaijan Sprint Race, where he led home a dominant Hitech 1-2 with Browning finishing second. Alex Dunne rounded out the podium, securing much needed points in his Championship campaign.
Trident fields a refreshed line-up this weekend, bringing in Laurens van Hoepen and Martinius Stenshorne—both stepping up from Formula 3- to replace Sami Meguetounif and Max Esterson. On the grid, Jak Crawford and Leonardo Fornaroli start from the front row, with Gabriele Minì and Alex Dunne lining up on the second row.
LIGHTS OUT!
Fornaroli launched a bold dive on Crawford into the first corner, snatching the lead as Minì also attacked and pushed Crawford down to P3. Meanwhile, Luke Browning made a slow getaway off the lights but quickly recovered his rhythm.
Still on the opening lap, Stenshorne swept past Dunne to climb into P5. By Lap 2, Crawford capitalised on the slipstream to pass Minì into Turn 1 and reclaim P2.
Moments later, Marti surged past Dunne at Turn 3 to gain another spot but lost it soon after to Stenshorne, who replicated Crawford’s earlier move on Minì.
With DRS now enabled, Fornaroli had already stretched his lead to 2.5 seconds over Crawford. On Lap 4, Dürksen continued the charge by overtaking Browning into Turn 1 to move up to P9.
Stenshorne out of the F2 Azerbaijan Feature Race!
Into Lap 5, Stenshorne ran head on into the barriers at Turn 1. A Safety Car was deployed to neutralise the cars, with then heading through the pit lane while the cleared the Trident car.
With the drivers heading through the pit lane, on Lap 5, they were unable to pit for new tyres until Lap 6.
Fornaroli was held up in the pit lane while waiting for drivers to pass, with Minì and Crawford moving ahead once the pit stops were completed.
With the Safety Car in at the end of Lap 7, the top 5 post pit stop was Minì, Crawford, Marti, Fornaroli, and Dunne, with Dürksen also capitalising and moving up to P6 from P9.
Green Flag
Minì held firm at the restart down the long straight, successfully retaining his lead. However, Browning’s race went from bad to worse as the Hitech driver ran off at Turn 4 and struggled to rejoin the track. By the time he recovered, he had slipped to the back of the field.
Soon after, Minì had a slow exit out of Turn 16, allowing Crawford to briefly snatch the lead. Nevertheless, Minì regained the position with the tow on the following lap.
Dunne locked up heavily into Turn 4 but still managed to send his Rodin Motorsport car past Fornaroli for P4. Browning then headed to the pits and was sent back out on new tyres, while stewards noted Minì for not following race director instructions at the safety car restart, but there was no further investigation.
Heading into Lap 10, Crawford activated DRS on Minì and swept back into the lead at Turn 1. Behind them, the top six bunched into a tight DRS train, with Beganovic trailing 1.5 seconds further back in P7.
Moments later, Fornaroli launched an attack on Dunne but misjudged his braking point into Turn 1, tagging the back of Dunne’s car. Dunne recovered and rejoined in P9, while race control immediately noted the incident. Dürksen managed a pass on Fornaroli with the incident, with the Championship leader dropping to P5.
Marti and Stenshorne were noted for causing a collision, which will be investigated after the race.
Halfway point of the Feature Race
By Lap 15, Dunne continued to slide down the order following his earlier clash with Fornaroli. In contrast, Lindblad kept pushing forward, overtaking Maini to grab P8.
Thereafter, the action briefly calmed. With the race at its halfway mark, the field shifted focus to tyre management, easing the intensity on track.
Martins ran wide and took the escape road, rejoining down in P20. Immediately after, Dürksen capitalising on DRS into Turn 1 to sweep past Marti, moving his AIX Racing machinery up into P3.
Meanwhile, Crawford broke free of the DRS train, extending a 1.1-second gap over Minì in P2. Capitalising on his momentum, Dürksen then used DRS before Turn 1 to overtake Minì for second, though he still faced a two-second gap to chase down Crawford.
Championship leader Fornaroli handed a 10-second penalty
After his earlier incident, Fornaroli received a 10-second penalty for colliding with Dunne. Nevertheless, on Lap 20 he charged past Marti into Turn 1 to take P4, while Dürksen simultaneously chipped 0.5 seconds out of Crawford’s lead. On the following lap, Fornaroli continued his recovery by overtaking Minì for P3, as the Hitech driver’s pace began to fade in the closing stages.
Beganovic capitalised on Minì’s fading pace to climb into P4. Further back, the fight for the final points positions heated up as Villagómez, Verschoor and Miyata scrapped hard over the last few available places in the top ten.
Dürksen continued to close in on Crawford, reducing the gap to just 1.1 seconds. Meanwhile, Dunne suffered a lock-up into Turn 15, dropping him down to P18 as he rejoined the track. Just a lap later, he had another off-track moment at the same corner, compounding his struggles, which saw him out of the race.
By Lap 25, Dürksen broke into DRS range of Crawford. On the following lap, he made a bold move on the outside into Turn 1, but Crawford expertly defended and maintained the lead through the corner. Durksen, snapping at the rear tyres of Crawford, continued to circle on the Dams Lucas Oil’s tail, but Crawford’s masterful defence continued to hold him off.
On the final lap, Dürksen made a desperate attempt into Turn 1, but couldn’t complete the overtake. He tried again, yet the Paraguayan driver was unable to pass the American, allowing Crawford to take a narrow victory at the chequered flag, just 0.216 seconds ahead.
Beganovic inherited P3 after Fornaroli dropped to P5 due to his 10-second penalty, with Minì finishing in P4.
Provisional classification of the 2025 F2 Azerbaijan GP Feature Race
- J. Crawford
- J. Dürksen
- D. Beganovic
- G. Minì
- L. Fornaroli
- J. Marti
- A. Lindblad
- R. Villagómez
- R. Verschoor
- S. Montoya
- R. Miyata
- O. Goethe
- R. Stanek
- J. Bennett
- V. Martins
- A. Cordeel
- L. van Hoepen
- C. Shields
- L. Browning (+1 lap)
- K. Maini (DNF)
- A. Dunne (DNF)
- M. Stenshorne (DNF)
