Jak Crawford left it for the last lap to take FIA F2 pole in Saudi Arabia to drop Victor Martins and Leonardo Fornaroli in second and third.
DAMS Lucas Oil’s Jak Crawford left it to his last lap of the day to take Pole Position in Jeddah, beating ART Grand Prix rival Victor Martins for the top spot by just 0.022s in a fascinating Qualifying session. Martins had looked set for pole after completing his flying lap, but Crawford’s 1:43.579 was enough to take spot, as Invicta Racing’s Leonardo Fornaroli rounded out the top three.
Martins set the early pace after the first set of laps, the Frenchman completing a 1:44.559 to lead Rodin Motorsport’s Alexander Dunne by 0.323s. The drivers though were able to push on for a second attempt on their Supersoft tyres, and on this occasion, it was Arvid Lindblad on top thanks to a 1:44.250. Martins kept his place in the top two though, albeit 0.073s off the Campos Racing rookie.
Several drivers, including Lindblad, then set off on a third flying lap. However, they aborted those attempts to head into the pit lane for a new set of tyres, that is despite the Briton setting the fastest time in the middle sector. With just over 11 minutes to go in the session, the drivers came back out on to the track on their new sets of Supersofts.
Gabriele Minì used that fresh rubber to rocket up to the top of the timesheets, only for Luke Browning to quickly drop him down to P2. The Hitech TGR driver eclipsed his PREMA Racing rival by 0.105s thanks to a 1:43.737. As the rest of the field looked to complete their laps though, the Red Flags were waved following John Bennett’s crash into the barrier at Turn 17.
With the Briton okay and his Van Amersfoort Racing car cleared from the track, the session resumed and there were just five minutes left for the drivers to get their final laps in. This led to a flurry activity with there being time for just one flying lap, and on his final attempt of the day, Crawford rose to the top with a 1:43.579, beating Martins by just 0.022s, to give DAMS their first pole position since Melbourne in 2023.
Fornaroli had initially been on provisional pole but wound up in third for Invicta, 0.092s off Crawford, while Browning ended up fourth. Lindblad was fifth ahead of Dunne and his Campos teammate Josep María Martí in seventh. Minì ended up in eighth, ahead of MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor as Roman Stanek rounded out the top 10 for Invicta. This means Stanek will line up on reverse the grid pole for Saturday’s Sprint Race.
Result: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1913257022776037645
UPDATE: Following the conclusion of the FIA Formula 2 Qualifying session in Jeddah, Invicta Racing’s Roman Stanek has been awarded grid penalties for both the Sprint and Feature Races. Stanek was summoned to the Stewards after the session for allegedly impeding Car 17 belonging to Alexander Dunne of Rodin Motorsport.
After hearing from both drivers, along with their respective team representatives, the Stewards determined that Stanek had unnecessarily impeded Dunne through Turns 7 and 8, breaching Article 31.6 of the FIA Formula 2 Sporting Regulations.
As a result, they elected to impose a grid drop of three positions for both races this weekend. Having been set to start the Sprint Race from reverse grid pole, the Czech driver will now go from P4 on the grid. It promotes MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor up to P1 for Saturday’s Sprint Race.
PREMA Racing’s Gabriele Minì and Josep María Martí of Campos Racing also move up one place each on the grid to second and third places respectively. Lastly, Van Amersfoort Racing’s John Bennett has lost his fastest laptime.
The Stewards determined that Car 24 was the sole cause of the Red Flag stoppage during the Qualifying session, and, in accordance with Article 33.5 of the 2025 FIA Formula 2 Sporting Regulations, imposed the penalty of deleting Car 24’s fastest time from the session. Bennett is demoted to 22nd in the Qualifying classification after the deletion of his fastest time. AIX Racing’s Cian Shields moves up one position as a result.
Stanek penalised: https://www.fia.com/system/files/decision-document/2025_jeddah_event_-_infringement_-_car_2_-_impeded_car_17_at_turn_7-8_in_qualifying.pdf
Stanek cleared: https://www.fia.com/system/files/decision-document/2025_jeddah_event_-_decision_-_car_2_-_allegedly_impeded_car_25_at_turn_4-5_in_qualifying.pdf
[The story is as per press release]
