Arvid Lindblad Wins The F2 Feature Race at Final Race at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya

Arvid Lindblad takes his first Feature Race win in the Formula 2 Spanish Grand Prix after a late safety car froze the grid from the penultimate lap. This also marks the first win for the Campos Racing squad on home soil with a car that showed dominance throughout the entire weekend. Columbian Sebastian Montoya drove onto 2nd and Dutch Richard Verschoor onto 3rd whilst Jake Crawford and Alex Dunne just missed out on a podium place through the interruption caused by Leonardo Fornaroli.

Arvid Lindblad immediately got a brilliant launch from pole ahead of Sebastian Montoya and Richard Verschoor. His Campos teammate had already made up 5 places from 11th to 6th within the first lap, however it was Kush Maini who lost out on some crucial points by quickly dropping from 3rd position to 12th.

Fornaroli’s race already started off the back foot as he had received a 10-second stop/go penalty for a starting infringement whilst running in 11th position although made his complaint well known over the radio as he believed his start was legal. Additionally, Joshua Durksen was one of the first to pit at the end of lap 6, switching from his soft tyres to a new set of hard compound and joining ahead of the Italian in 21st position.

This caused a domino effect by lap 9 as other drivers began to pile into the pit lane, such as Sami Meguetounif, Max Esterson, Amary Cordeel, Luke Browning and Richard Verschoor. Arvid Lindblad continued to lead and carried out his pit stop during lap 13, marginally drifting under braking on entry before exiting in  12th position.

By the halfway point in the Feature Race, the threat of track limits was ever-increasing including over Durksen who was noted for leaving the track and gaining an advantage whilst ignoring the race director’s instructions and travelling on the wrong side of the escape road. Both these instances eventually landed him with two 5-second penalties alongside Oliver Goethe, who had also incurred a 5-second penalty on lap 22 for track limits and another on lap 32.

Lindblad continued to carve his way through the field but was held up by Gabriele Mini in 5th position due to the limited overtaking zones around the Barcelona circuit, and very quickly closed the gap between him and Montoya behind by a second before making his way around the Italian at Turn 1.

Controversy continued as Ritomo Miyata was squeezed to the outside of the track by Luke Browning, who made the pass around him as well as Durksen and Crawford on the apex of Turn 3, where contact was made by the American on the back of the AIX Racing car. The former of these incidents resulted in the Briton receiving a 10-second penalty for causing a collision compared to the latter which received no further investigation.

The first yellow flag of the race was brought out during lap 26 where Rafael Villagomez stopped near a side road, however it was rapidly cleared by marshals without the need of a safety car. Luckily, this did not disrupt the pace of Verschoor who kept his pace up whilst battling Montoya for 2nd position during the latter stages of the race.

The last 5 laps of the race brought much excitement as drivers began to use any energy the cars had left. Alex Dunne was making a strong late charge by climbing through the points places to try and retain his championship lead. However it was the battle for 2nd place between Montoya, Verschoor and Crawford that drew more attention as the gap closed to around a second before the deployment of a safety car from the Invicta Racing rookie being caught in the gravel.

The end of the triple header brought much excitement and mixed up the championship at every interval but Irishman Alex Dunne still leads the 2025 season after a tricky series of grid-place penalties this weekend. Formula 2 will continue its outings at the Red Bull Ring in Austria on the 27th to the 29th of June