Roman Stanek claims victory after both Alex Dunne and Arvid Lindblad lose results from Belgium Feature Race

Credit: Malcolm Griffiths

After a post-race time penalty for Alex Dunne and a disqualification for Arvid Lindblad, Invicta Racing's Roman Stanek inherits victory in Sunday's Formula 2 Feature Race in Belgium,

Alex Dunne initially won the race but was handed a 10-second time penalty post race for a starting procedure infringement, which would have promoted Arvid Lindblad to race victory. However, Lindblad was then disqualified for a tyre pressure infringement.

This promoted Stanek to first position for a first win since the Australian Sprint Race back in March 2024, where back then, he inherited race victory from now Formula One racing driver Isack Hadjar.

With the penalty and disqualification issued to Dunne and Lindblad respectively, this promotes Ritomo Miyata to second place, which gives the Japanese driver a maiden FIA Formula 2 podium, in his second season. After an eventful race, Luke Browning took the final place on the podium in the final classification.

After round nine, a change to the championship lead has been made after a really difficult weekend for Dutch MP Motorsport driver Richard Verschoor, who went the weekend without scoring a point.

Dunne would have taken the championship lead, had he kept victory, but now that instead falls to FIA Formula 3 reigning champion Leonardo Fornaroli, who won Saturday's Sprint Race at Spa Francorchamps.

Fornaroli now has 125 points at the top of the Drivers' Championsship, with three points being the gap between he and Verschoor in second. Jak Crawford is third just nine points off the championship lead, while Dunne in fourth finds himself 11. Just 12 points separate the top five with Luke Browning in fifth on 113.

As for the Teams' Championship, after two wins across the weekend, Invicta Racing jump up to the top of the table and ahead of Campos Racing. Invicta have 182 points and that is a 13-point advantage over Campos, who move to second.

The race itself was a challenging one for the drivers and teams, as the circuit was wet, with the threat of potentially more rain, but also there was a chance that it could dry if the rain held off throughout the 25-lap Feature Race.

The Feature Race became 23 laps though, with three laps being done under the Safety Car before the race start, which was determined to be a rolling start by the Race Control team so it was pole sitter Alex Dunne, who led the cars over the start/finish line to begin the race.

It was a good start from Dunne, who had the lead from Miyata and Stanek after Les Combes with Victor Martins holding fourth position from the Red Bull-liveried Campos of Lindblad.

Qualifying on Friday saw a few big upsets with Verschoor, Browning and Crawford all qualifying outide the pivotal top 10. Browning was making progress really early on and took 11th from the Rodin Motorsport of Amaury Cordeel on the second lap.

Despite no DRS activation, there was still possibility for overtaking as Pepe Marti proved so  as he got back ahead of Fornaroli, who he lost sixth place to on the opening lap but now he was back chasing after his teammate Lindblad.

Browning's wet-weather pace was not doubted after a stunning Feature Race drive during the Silverston Feature Race, one round prior to the one at Spa Francorchamps. His latest position gain on lap four was him up to 10th. The Williams Academy driver passed his championship rival Verschoor.

A few corners later, it became ninth for the British driver as he passed Verschoor's MP Motorsport teammate Oliver Goethe. Great early pace from Browning in the Belgium Feature Race.

Hitech were showing good race pace and this was furthered by just a few corners later, Browning's teammate Dino Beganovic passed Verschoor for 11th place in the race. Good move from the Ferrari Academy driver.

Despite it being a wet-weather race, drivers still had to serve mandatory pit stops, which for the entire field meant a new set of the wet-weather tyres. The first drivers, who took a gamble early on, were Sami Meguetounif of Trident, Kush Maini of DAMS Lucas Oil and Sebastian Montoya of Prema.

Meanwhile those three drivers served their pit stops, there was a battle for the lead developing out front. Despite a strong and rapid start from the Rodin Motorsport of Dunne, he was being reigned in by Miyata, Stanek, Martins and Lindblad. The top five really close together.

Despite wet weather, track limits around Spa Francorchamps were still causing issues with Martins and Prema's Gabriele Mini picking up black and white flags early on. Eventually, Martins was penalised for track limits and handed 10-seconds worth before his mandatory pit stop.

Lap 11 and more drivers began to pit. Beganovic, Fornaroli, Mini and Verschoor all made the decision to pit for fresh wets close to the halfway point in the race. Beganovic rejoined out ahead of the other three and the four were running in 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th respectively.

However, many more ahead of them were yet to come into the pit lane and on the following lap many decided to stop. This included Martins, Stanek and Marti before on the following lap, race leader Dunne was in.

Dunne and Miyata visited the pit lane and the start of lap 13 as well as British duo Lindblad and Browning. There was drama in the pit stops though as when Lindblad pitted, he had an incident involving the Invicta team. Lindblad was investigated after the race was given a reprimand.

It was not the only driver who had drama as on cold tyres exiting the pit lane, on the slippery pit exit, Browning spun and did well to avoid the wall. He kept the engine running and thankfully, for his sake, he was able to rejoin the Feature Race.

The rain began to get heavier on the following lap, which made the conditions at Spa Francorchamps even more treacherous. While this was going on, Dunne got back up into the race lead as he passed Goethe with a lovely move in the middle part of the lap.

Soon the lead pack were all back up in some form of order once Oliver Goethe was the final driver to serve his mandatory pit stop. This promoted Lindblad to third and Miyata is up to second after the pair passed Stanek in the yellow Invicta Racing machine.

Miyata was on course for his first podium in the race but that was thrown into jeopardy when he spun at turn 10 and dropped from second on the road to fourth place. Lindblad was up to second and Stanek up to third.

Lap 17 and Sprint Race winner Leonardo Fornaroli made a brilliant pass through the Eau Rouge and Radillon sequence with a delightful pass on the Hitech of Beganovic. The Formula 3 champion made it look easy but his precision was spectacular.

At the same time, a position was gained for the Hitech of Browning. He was continuing a fine drive through the field after passing the Campos of Pepe Marti for position.

That was the last of green flag racing action though as the Safety Car was called into play following a stranded Montoya at the top of Radillon. The Prema spun entering Radillon and did well to keep it out of the barrier but in doing so, stalled the engine and was out.

During the Safety Car period, Oliver Goethe ran into some bother and had an engine failure and had to pull up near to where Montoya's car was being recovered. The rain was starting to get worse and Race Control made the subsequent decision to red flag the race and that was the end of the race.

Originally Dunne crossed the line to take the win ahead of Lindblad, Stanek, Miyata and Browning completed the original top five. However, both Dunne and Lindblad were penalised after the race had finished.

Dunne failed to engage the start procedure correctly at the beginning of the formation lap and on that technicality was handed a 10-second time penalty by the Stewards which dropped him from first to ninth in the final classification.

As for Lindblad, he was disqualified after the race for the tyre pressures being too low in parc ferme and therefore lost what was looking like victory after Dunne's penalty.

Instead the win went to Stanek to make it two wins for Invicta Racing across the weekend and one each for their respective drivers after Fornaroli secured Sprint Race glory on Saturday. Stanek, Miyata and Browning was the podium in the final classification.

Pepe Marti was registered fourth ahead of Fornaroli, who rounded off the top five positions. After a podium in the Sprint Race, Gabriele Mini took sixth ahead of Beganovic and Martins, who were seventh and eighth.

Completing the top 10 was Dunne in ninth and home hero Amaury Cordeel, who rounded off the point-scoring positions.

Formula 2 will be next back in action on Friday August 1, when round 10 of 14 in the 2025 season will take place in Budapest, Hungary at the legendary Hungaroring.

2025 FIA Formula 2 Championship: Round 9 - Belgium Feature Race final classification

1. Roman Stanek
   
2. Ritomo Miyata
   
3. Luke Browning
   
4. Pepe Marti
   
5. Leonardo Fornaroli
6. Gabriele Mini
   
7. Dino Beganovic
   
8. Victor Martins
   
9. Alex Dunne
   
10. Amaury Cordeel
11. Joshua Durksen
    
12. John Bennett
    
13. Oliver Goethe
    
14. Rafael Villagomez
15. Sami Meguetounif
16. Max Esterson
    
17. Jak Crawford
    
18. Richard Verschoor
    
19. Cian Shields
    
20. Kush Maini
    
21. Sebastian Montoya (DNF)
    
22. Arvid Lindblad (DSQ)
    

Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal