Staněk aces qualifying in Hungary to grab maiden F2 pole position

Vyas Ponnuri
Aug 1
4 min read

Written by Vyas Ponnuri

Invicta Racing continued their wave of momentum in the European stage of the Formula 2 calendar, with Roman Staněk backing up his Feature Race win in Belgium with a maiden pole position in F2 in Hungary, as the team in yellow locked out the front row of the grid.

Staněk took his maiden F2 pole in Budapest | Credit: Formula 2 via X

It was a superlative session for the Czech racer, who looked to be head and shoulders clear of the rest. His final lap of 1:28.779 ultimately proved too far for the rest of the grid to claim, with championship leader Leonardo Fornaroli being the closest challenger, 0.146 seconds off his teammate's lap.

Fornaroli's attempt at an alternate strategy to the rest of the grid meant he was able to net second on the road, while Jak Crawford put his DAMS into the top three for Sunday's Feature Race.

Hitech TGR's Luke Browning made his way into the top ten in qualifying for the first time in three race weekends, finishing fourth in the 30-minute session, while AIX Racing's Joshua Dürksen and MP Motorsport's Oliver Goethe netted strong finishing positions in fifth and sixth respectively.

Victor Martins continued his run of qualifying in the top 10 in 2025, finishing seventh after the session for ART Grand Prix, while Arvid Lindblad recovered from his disqualification in Spa to finish eighth in the session.

Championship challenger Alex Dunne will start the sprint race on the front row, alongside Lindblad's teammate Pepe Martí, who will lead the field away for the 28-lap sprint on Saturday.

AS IT UNFOLDED - F2 qualifying in Hungary

Fornaroli attempted an alternate strategy, which paid off in netting a front row spot | Credit: Formula 2 via X

Luke Browning kicked off Formula 2's Hungarian weekend by topping the sole Free Practice session earlier in the day, ahead of Goethe and Rodin Motorsport's Alex Dunne. Browning and Dunne are two of the five in the championship battle, one that sees the top five separated by only 12 points.

Dunne was one of the first to take to the revamped and repaved Hungaroring, with the Campos duo of Arvid Lindblad, Pepe Martí and Goethe being the first set their laps.

However, as the drivers set their lap times, it was newly-crowned Spa Feature Race winner Staněk who continued his good run of form in qualifying by setting a 1:29.167, setting the quickest time of the session after the drivers completed their first runs.

Goethe and teammate Richard Verschoor continued MP Motorsport's great Friday, sitting second and third in the running order for the team in orange. Meanwhile, Staněk's teammate, championship leader Leonardo Fornaroli waited in the garage for a cleaner track, emerging out onto the track after ten minutes had elapsed the session.

The running order remained relatively stable after two flying laps in the first half, with Staněk only increasing his advantage by 0.060 seconds to Goethe, setting a 1:29.107, as both MP Motorsport drivers improved on their first laps.

The biggest gainers on their second laps were Browning's teammate Dino Beganovic, who moved up to sixth, while Lindblad and Martí put themselves up into 10th and 12th respectively.

Meanwhile, Fornaroli's first lap of the session was good enough to send him straight up to the top of the leaderboard, but a track limit violation at Turn 1 caused his lap time to be deleted. Nevertheless, this did little to bother the Italian driver, who elevated himself to fourth on the road, his Invicta Racing running out of peak grip on his second flying lap.

As Fornaroli made his way back to the pits, the rest of the grid returned to the track on their fresher tyres, ready to set the pace once again to decide the grid for the weekend's races.

Onto the fresh tyres, Staněk only increased his advantage, setting a scorching 1:28.779, which stood the test of the F2 grid as drivers elevated their positions in the order — the likes of Jak Crawford and Joshua Dürksen lifting themselves into the top five, while PREMA Racing's Sebastián Montoya put himself into the top four, before his lap was the latest to be deleted.

Fornaroli, meanwhile, emerged onto the track with five minutes to go until the flag, doing his customary two preparation laps before setting off for his flying lap with 47 seconds left on the clock.

Having been up on his teammate Staněk in the first sector, Fornaroli's second sector saw him drop time, falling to 13 milliseconds behind his teammate when it all added up. Once the final sector lined up, the Italian racer vaulted his way up to second, missing out on pole by 0.146 seconds, locking out the front row for Invicta Racing.

Elsewhere, Crawford held on for third on the grid, while Dürksen and Goethe experienced strong qualifying sessions to finish fifth and sixth.