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TITLE WEEKEND ANALYSIS: How Fornaroli’s outstanding Lusail weekend made him Champion

3 December 2025

Leonardo Fornaroli is the 2025 FIA Formula 2 Champion, and he has sealed the crown with a round to spare thanks to a brilliant weekend in Lusail.

It all started with an outstanding Friday, where he took Pole Position – helped by Oliver Goethe’s three-place grid penalty for impeding – which set him up for both races.

From then on, two points finishes including a run to P2 in the Feature Race was enough to give Fornaroli a well-earned title.

So, as we review our weekend in Qatar, let us look at how the Invicta Racing driver etched his name into the single seater history books.

AN EPIC START

Fornaroli was in tremendous form from the minute he left the pitlane on Friday afternoon, constantly finding his name at, or near, the top of the leaderboard in Free Practice.

The Italian eventually ended up with the fastest time of a 1:38.656, putting him 0.104s clear of his nearest competitor Dino Beganovic.

Fornaroli made a fine start to his Lusail weekend as he was fastest in Free Practice

What was interesting was that of the five title contenders – Fornaroli, Jak Crawford, Luke Browning, Richard Verschoor and Alexander Dunne – the Championship leader and Dunne, were the two rookies who had never been to the track.

So, it certainly caught the eye when Fornaroli ended up fastest, while Dunne was third. Browning though was in P4, Verschoor was seventh, while Crawford rounded out the top 10.

Fornaroli did not read too much into that, feeling that he did not know what other teams were doing, so looking at the times was not too representative.

But the 20-year-old and Invicta’s early pace should not have been a surprise. The British outfit were incredibly strong in Lusail last year, as Gabriel Bortoleto qualified second behind Paul Aron.

NARROWLY LOSING OUT

After Goethe was given a three-place grid penalty for impeding Martinius Stenshorne, Fornaroli was handed the Aramco Pole Position Award.

Fornaroli had been in an outstanding form throughout the evening, as each lap he completed, apart from the last one, was good enough for him to go to the top of the leaderboard.

After Goethe's penalty, Fornaroli started the Feature Race from pole position

It was a good night for him as the closest title contender to Fornaroli on the timesheets was Dunne in P5, with the Rodin Motorsport driver facing the biggest challenge to overturn the Italian’s point advantage going into the weekend.

The closest challenger coming into the weekend was Crawford, and he revealed that not using the peak of the tyre in Qualifying cost him, and he found himself down in P15.

Browning, having also looked strong in Free Practice, struggled all night, and wound up down in P18. Verschoor did however set himself up for reverse grid pole with a run to P10.

SECURING MORE POINTS

One thing Fornaroli has been exceptional at this season is scoring points. In the 25 races he has competed in, he has scored in 23 of them. The 20-year-old continued that in the Sprint, finishing sixth, adding three points to his tally.

Fornaroli outscored Crawford by two points, who finished eighth, while he mitigated the loss to Verschoor who scored 11 points by winning the race.

The Italian was made to work for the result though, battling hard with teammate Roman Stanek early on, and having to resist a late attack from Stenshorne.

Fornaroli lost the lead of the Feature Race to Martins after learning from the Formation Lap

Those 23 laps gave Fornaroli and Invicta a clear direction of their pace heading into the race, and the points made sure that if he finished inside the top two on Sunday, he had every chance of winning the title.

CHAMPIONSHIP SUNDAY

It was a slow getaway from pole, which allowed Victor Martins to get ahead of the Italian going into Turn 1.

Fornaroli revealed that he knew he had a problem with his starts from the Formation Lap, so chose a less aggressive approach just to make sure he could get off the line.

That he did, and while he was still on course to win the title in the early stages, it was clear from both his and teammate Roman Stanek’s pace, they were struggling on the Soft tyres.

Fornaroli was five seconds behind Martins and coming under pressure from Dunne when he pitted on Lap 6, giving him 26 laps to go on the Hards.

This seemed to work, as helped by the ART Grand Prix driver’s slower stop on the next lap, Fornaroli closed the gap, while keeping Dunne behind.

Fornaroli's fine weekend saw him seal the title with a round to spare

From then on, it was all about managing his tyres, and he did that while keeping Martins, who was struggling behind traffic, on his toes.

At one stage, it looked like he had the advantage on the Frenchman, as he closed to within DRS range in the final few laps. But with his rivals further behind he did not have to take any risks. As Fornaroli mentioned afterwards, it was all about scoring points.

His 20 points were enough to see him throughtake the title, as he crossed the line 1.2s behind Martins, becoming the first driver to win the title with a round to spare since Felipe Drugovich in 2022.

Fornaroli’s job is not quite over though, as he will want to help Invicta seal the Teams’ Championship for the second season in a row at Yas Marina this weekend. But he will race with the certainty of knowing that he is the Drivers’ Champion.