Leonardo Fornaroli finally claimed his long-awaited first Formula 2 victory with a commanding drive in the Sprint Race at Silverstone, bolstering his championship challenge.
Despite being the reigning Formula 3 World Champion, the Italian has never stood on the top step, making Saturday’s breakthrough win even more significant in his career.
Sebastian Montoya claimed yet another podium in second and Roman Stanek joined his team-mate on the podium to complete the top three – a 1-3 for Invicta Racing.
Fornaroli started the Sprint from pole position with Kush Maini joining him on the front row, while championship leader Richard Verschoor began from fourth on the second row.
Title rivals Jak Crawford and Alex Dunne lined up from eighth and ninth, with Sunday’s polesitter Victor Martins completing the top 10 on the grid.
Fornaroli battles Maini for the lead as Montoya climbs to third
Starting third on the grid, Dino Beganovic failed to get away for the formation lap and was rolled back to the pits by the race marshals for a pit lane start.
With the grid spot left empty, five lights went out and Maini surged into the lead ahead of Fornaroli.
The pair battled side by side into Brooklands, nearly touching on the exit of Luffield, before Fornaroli reclaimed the lead heading into Copse.
Behind the leaders, Montoya made a strong start, gaining two places to third, with Stanek moving up to fourth.
Verschoor dropped six positions to 10th, while Dunne also lost places, falling to 11th.
Fornaroli quickly nullified Maini’s DRS advantage after taking the lead, as Montoya began applying early pressure for second.
Martins settled into seventh, while home favourites Arvid Lindblad and Luke Browning moved up to eighth and ninth, respectively, both making gains off the start.
Maini closed to within a second of Fornaroli a few laps later, easing the pressure from Montoya behind him.
On Lap 6, Browning and Lindblad fought hard into Vale, with the Hitech driver emerging ahead to claim eighth place and the final point-scoring position.
Title contender Dunne in the wars at Silverstone
Verschoor made quick work of Lindblad to take ninth place and leave the Red Bull junior in 10th.
Dunne and Gabriele Mini collided exiting Turn 2 while fighting for 11th, after the Irishman locked up and ran wide into the first corner.
The Rodin Motorsport driver picked up a puncture, while Mini suffered damage to his front wing.
On Lap 10, yellow flags were waved momentarily to allow marshals to clear the debris and rubber left behind by the contact.
Mini was handed a 10-second time penalty for causing the collision, as ruled by the stewards.
Up front, Maini continued to lead a closely packed train, with Montoya, Stanek, Joshua Duerksen, Jak Crawford, Martins, Browning, and Verschoor all locked in pursuit.
On Lap 15, Montoya made his move at the end of the Hangar Straight, sweeping past Maini to snatch second place and leaving the DAMS driver to fend off the chasing pack.
Stanek immediately attempted the same overtake, but Maini slammed the door shut, the pair going wheel-to-wheel into Vale, which nearly gave Duerksen a chance to steal fourth.
Further back, Browning was piling the pressure on Martins and briefly edged ahead into Turn 1, but was forced to back out.
Fornaroli converts pole into race victory ahead of Montoya
By Lap 18, Montoya was steadily chipping away at Fornaroli’s advantage, cutting the gap down to just one and a half seconds.
Meanwhile, Maini continued to hold firm against Stanek’s relentless pressure, with the pack behind bunching up as the battle intensified.
Lindblad and Mini now joined the fight on the penultimate lap as Fornaroli neared victory.
Stanek finally got ahead after going wheel-to-wheel with Maini into Vale, but he went off track as he passed the DAMS car.
Martins and Browning made contact out of Luffield, the Frenchman dropping to ninth and Verschoor inheriting eighth place.
However, the moment for Fornaroli arrived as he achieved his first win in over 1491 days, despite becoming the FRECA rookie champion and the F3 champion in the meantime, to stake his claim for the championship.
Montoya and Stanek completed the podium, with the Czech driver securing back-to-back top-three finishes after ending his year-long podium drought in Austria.
Maini settled for fourth after the stewards opted not to investigate Stanek’s wide moment at Stowe while passing the Indian driver.
Duerksen and Crawford fought to the chequered flag in a thrilling photo finish, with the Paraguayan edging out the DAMS driver by just 0.001s to secure fifth.
Browning came home in seventh but was handed a 10-second time penalty for the collision with Martins, bumping him to 12th.
Therefore, Verschoor, on a recovery drive, took seventh place and the ART driver inherited the final point of the Sprint in eighth after his incident with Browning.
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