Pepe Martí takes victory in incident-riddled Austrian F2 sprint

Vyas Ponnuri
Jun 28
5 min read

Updated: Jul 7

Written by Vyas Ponnuri

Pepe Martí kept it clean and took a special victory at the Red Bull Ring for Campos, ahead of AIX Racing's Joshua Dürksen, who returned to the podium for the first time since Australia, in a race of attrition which saw only 12 racers make the flag.

The Austrian sprint podium | Credit: Formula 2 via X

Turn 3 was the centre of attention all race, with all three interruptions and interventions triggered due to incidents at the slow right-hander. This corner saw eight cars eliminated from racing contention during the 28-lap sprint.

Behind the duo, Roman Staněk took his first podium of 2025 for Invicta Racing, while Richard Verschoor took home points for fourth, avoiding a last-lap melee to successfully bring home valuable points.

The lower points scorers fell by the wayside after a last lap incident, paving the way for the likes of Sebastián Montoya, Alex Dunne, Victor Martins and Ritomo Miyata to take home points from an extremely chaotic Austrian sprint race.

AS IT UNFOLDED - The Austrian sprint

A chaotic race of interventions saw only 12 cars finish the race | Credit: Formula 2 via X

Van Amersfoort Racing's rookie John Bennett qualified a season-best tenth on the grid, netting reverse grid pole for the Saturday sprint. Joshua Dürksen and Alex Dunne were promoted one spot each on the sprint grid, following Campos racer Pepe Martí's penalty for impeding during qualifying.

All drivers took the harder, soft tyres for the 28-lap race. The option of a super soft tyre loomed in the background, with drivers set to swap compounds if the ending at Barcelona repeated once again.

There was action even before the formation lap, with DAMS' Jak Crawford stalling even before the grid got away. He was wheeled into the pit lane, shaping for an even tougher sprint ahead.

Bennett, who had never turned a racing lap around the track before, stuttered as the five red lights went out. The Briton quickly lost ground to Dürksen, Invicta Racing's Roman Staněk and Martí, who had leapt up from fourth to second. Rodin Motorsport's Amaury Cordeel too slipped by, demoting Bennett to fifth.

Further back, championship leaders Richard Verschoor and Alex Dunne battled on the run down to turn 6, with mere millimetres separating both orange cars on the road.

The action came to a halt on lap 2, with a red flag deployed for a major incident at turn 3. Two championship contenders, Arvid Lindblad and Luke Browning battled heading up into the right-hander. As the two slowed each other up, Trident's Sami Meguetounif attempted to slide past the inside of Lindblad into turn 3.

However, Lindblad, who had Browning's Williams-liveried Hitech TGR alongside, didn't notice the Trident on the inside of the corner. As the trio braked and closed up in the corner, Lindblad and Browning made contact, while Meguetounif's Trident climbed over both cars, flipping twice and landing upside down.

The Frenchman later reported he was okay, but the incident triggered a red flag, with rescue operations underway to extricate the stricken Trident from the corner.

A start time was announced several minutes later, with the F2 sprint set to resume only at 14:52 local time (12:52 GMT), with a starting order too published. With a limited window to complete the race, drivers and teams were set for a potential timed race, with reduced points on the horizon.

The race would resume with two tours of Austria behind the safety car, before a rolling start ensued for the remainder of the race. A timed race meant it was only 34 minutes to the chequered flag.

It would be double trouble for DAMS, as Kush Maini too failed to get going onto the formation lap under the safety car. Once again, it was a similar technical issue to his teammate Crawford, with the team looking for a swift resolution to the issue.

As the race got underway once again, Dürksen led away from Martí and Staněk, as the top five maintained their positions onto the restart. Gabriele Minì scrapped away with Dunne in the high speed turns 6, 7 and 8 section, going around the outside to maintain position.

However, it woudn't be long before the safety car emerged on track once again. A late move from Ollie Goethe into turn 3 tipped Dino Beganovic around. The Hitech man, who attempted to restart his car by going down the hill, failed to do so, forcing yet another retirement in a race of attrition.

A relatively swift turnaround meant the grid went back to green flag running on lap 8. Dunne copped a five-second penalty for his false start to the race off the five red lights. Running outside the points, it was a major concern for the Irishman in the context of the championship standings, with Verschoor up ahead in sixth.

Maini, meanwhile, rejoined the race two laps down, while Goethe suffered a ten-second penalty for causing the incident. Dunne, on the other hand, lost two more positions to Victor Martins and Sebastián Montoya's PREMA Racing, sliding down to 11th.

Montoya made another move on Martins to move up to ninth onto lap 10, sitting behind his teammate Minì on the road.

Halfway into the race, the top eight remained in DRS range, running nose to tail as they all looked to run their respective races.

The only change for position was for tenth, with Dunne moving past Martins at turn 3, putting the Frenchman under pressure from his teammate Ritomo Miyata into turn 4.

The lead battle heated up onto laps 17 and 18, with Martí grabbing the lead from Dürksen after diving down the inside of turn 3 to grab the lead. Having run wide, the Paraguayan then fell under pressure from Staněk, but just held on to his position.

The constant scrapping, though, brought the top eight into contention once again, with Leonardo Fornaroli in eighth only four seconds off leader Martí.

With only five minutes on the clock until the flag dropped, it was clear drivers would receive full points for the sprint, with the race clocking over 75% of the full distance of 28 laps for the race. The lead battle now split into two DRS trains, with Bennett in fifth losing position to Verschoor into turn 4.

Minì was the next driver to pass Bennett, moving up into sixth on lap 27, repeating a sequence of moves he had put in earlier in the race to get past Dunne, to move up the order.

Late drama ensued on the final lap, though, with several cars taken out in a serial incident at turn 3, once again. While Staněk and Dürksen attempted to battle into turn 3, Cordeel's attempt to take a wider line saw him spin onto the exit kerb off turn 3.

The rest running behind appeared to have been unsighted, running into the stationary Rodin Motorsport car on the racing line. Bennett, Minì and Fornaroli, all running in the lower points, were caught up in the incident, leaving them frustrated after a long race.

Martí checked out ahead to win the race, ahead of Dürksen and Staněk, who battled on until the line, with several drivers behind capitalising on last-lap drama to take home valuable points.