RACE ANALYSIS: Where Duerksen made the difference to win in Melbourne

While the weekend ended in torrential rain, Saturday’s Sprint Race took place in conditions that were a world away, as a heatwave hit Melbourne making it the hottest day of running by some distance.

That played into the Sprint results, with air temperature hovering around 34°C and making it a gruelling welcome back for the drivers in their first race of 2025.

In the end, Joshua Duerksen and AIX Racing went back-to-back, winning their second consecutive F2 race after he finished the 2024 season on the top step around Yas Marina.

Here is how the Paraguayan made the difference and won the first race of the new campaign.

LIGHTS OUT

Lining up for his third F2 race start, albeit first as a full-time driver in the Championship, Leonardo Fornaroli started from Pole Position, but his advantage was nullified almost immediately.

Duerksen hooked his AIX car up perfectly at lights out, finding traction with ease compared to the pole sitter, and the lead changed hands just 100m after the start.

Fornaroli’s initial movement is forward, but his car begins to point towards Duerksen either due to braking traction, or in a defensive move. Duerksen in comparison has his car arrow straight and as he finds second gear, surges alongside and quickly past the polesitter.

Interestingly, in the earlier Formula 3 Sprint Race, Matías Zagazeta also got the better initial launch from the P2 grid slot on the ‘dirty’ side of the grid. Reverse grid polesitter Santiago Ramos was able to defend his lead however, as compared to Fornaroli, he kept his car pointing straight for a much stronger second phase of his launch.

It meant he was much better placed to defend the lead, and he got aggressive by squeezing the DAMS Lucas Oil driver to the inside much more, an option that Duerksen did not afford Fornaroli.

FIRST SAFETY CAR RESTART

The early laps are broken up by a Virtual Safety Car and then on Lap 6, a full Safety Car is deployed. Up to that point, the Invicta Racing driver has kept in touching distance of race leader Duerksen. The gap was underneath the one-second window guaranteeing him DRS, but he has not been able to use it to his advantage yet due to the VSC and full Safety Car.

Racing goes back to green flag conditions on Lap 11, and Duerksen gets a perfect restart by choosing to launch into Turn 11. This leaves Fornaroli to trail in the dirty air through the final four corners, giving the AIX driver a 0.8s gap over the line.

READ MORE: FIA Formula 2 Melbourne Feature Race Cancelled

The remaining 0.2s the Paraguayan required to escape DRS range were found in the final sector once again, which became a theme over the next several laps.

It was here where Duerksen did most of his damage as while he and Fornaroli traded tenths of a second in sectors one and two, the AIX driver was consistently quicker in the final segment of the lap by around half a second.

By managing his performance and being able to use his F2 experience to his advantage to fire up the Pirelli tyres into their temperature range, Duerksen escapes any threat from behind, until the second Safety Car is called upon at the end of Lap 14.

PACE IN HAND

A shorter Safety Car period ended on Lap 16, and once again Duerksen chose to launch back to racing speed at Turn 11. But this time around, Fornaroli is able to keep in closer touch.

The Italian driver is around a tenth of a second quicker than the race leader over the next several laps in the first sector, his higher speeds across the start/finish line and through the speed trap keeping him in contention. But Duerksen still makes the difference in the final sector.

While his advantage is smaller this time around in this final phase of the Sprint Race, a consistent 0.2s advantage in sector three over Fornaroli enables him to build up a gap. He moved clear of DRS range on Lap 16, and eventually he ends up over two seconds clear by the chequered flag.

READ MORE: SPRINT RACE: Duerksen in dominant form as he takes victory in Melbourne

Duerksen appears to be controlling the gap to his closest threat, with the gap stabilising at 1.5s between Laps 19 and 21 before he delivers a 1:32.785, demonstrating his pace in hand over Fornaroli. It was 0.2s quicker than Fornaroli’s personal best, delivered on the previous lap, though that time was just 0.013s faster than the AIX driver managed on the same tour.

Duerksen’s impressive performance in the Sprint appeared to demonstrate he has carried on his strong end-of-season form from last year, and he has been able to implement lessons he learned across his rookie campaign.

He drove a measured race and never looked flustered as he claimed a second consecutive victory in Formula 2, and on this evidence, it is unlikely to be his last.