Fornaroli wins second successive F2 sprint race at Spa

Leonardo Fornaroli followed up his maiden Formula 2 win with a second successive sprint race success at Spa-Francorchamps.

The Invicta Racing driver started third on the grid but leapt immediately to the lead on the short run to La Source down the inside of front row starters Oliver Goethe and Amaury Cordeel.

There was a costly incident further back for three several championship contenders who converged at the exit of the first corner, with Luke Browning becoming sandwiched between the championship leader Richard Verschoor and second-placed Jak Crawford, who had all qualified outside of the top 10.

The ensuing contact sent both Browning and Crawford immediately off into the gravel, with only Crawford able to continue, before Verschoor spun in Eau Rouge – blaming a fluid leak from sidepod damage which caused him to retire to the pits.

Fornaroli kept the lead after a safety car restart but had to defend two laps later from Rodin Motorsport driver Cordeel, who had set the fastest lap on the previous tour. Fornaroli responded with a fastest lap of his own and soon began to break away out front.

Goethe caught Cordeel but had to catch a big moment at the top of Raidillon and did well to keep hold of third place ahead of Victor Martins. A lap later he went wide over the kerb in the same place and couldn’t prevent Martins from going by.

Three laps later, Martins made a clean move around the outside of Les Combes on Cordeel, who didn’t leave enough space and found himself going off into the gravel, triggering another safety car.

Behind the podium runners, the vast majority opted to pit for fresh soft tyres with only fifth-placed Gabriele Mini and backmarker Cian Shields continuing to join the top three in staying on medium rubber, and vulnerable to those behind at the restart.

Five laps still remained when racing resumed. Mini quickly passed Goethe for third while Pepe Marti – the leading runner on softs – made quick work of Shields, followed closely by Roman Stanek and Alex Dunne.

Marti struggled to make further progress and pass Goethe however, allowing Dunne and Stanek to begin fighting with him instead.

Sami Meguetounif coming to a stop on the Kemmel Straight on the penultimate lap meant that the race would end under safety car.

Race results (18 laps)