The Spanish driver was the undisputed star on Saturday with an excellent recovery drive that took him all the way to the top step of the podium. On Sunday, despite a time penalty, he salvaged a valuable sixth place. Lindblad's chances were compromised after a difficult qualifying session. As for the Teams’ Championship, Campos Racing continues to lead the standings
The seventh round of the 2025 FIA Formula 2 season, held this past weekend at the Red Bull Ring, marked Pepe Martí’s return to the top of the podium. A highly positive result, especially as it came at the home race of the Red Bull Junior Team, allowing the Barcelona-born driver to return to the winning ways that he had established at the beginning of the campaign. Meanwhile, luck was not on the side of Campos Racing’s other driver, Arvid Lindblad, who was unable to score any points in Spielberg, always playing catch-up after a challenging qualifying session.
On Friday, during the first free practice session, Lindblad was among the frontrunners from the start. The Briton eventually finished third on the timesheets with a lap of 1m16.474s. Martí, for his part, ended up eleventh with a personal best of 1m16.826s. Everything was still up for grabs going into the afternoon’s qualifying session, held under track temperatures nearing 40ºC. Both Campos Racing drivers were among the contenders for pole position. As expected, mere tenths would decide everything. As an illustration, the gap between pole position and 15th place was less than half a second. In such close conditions, Martí was the top performer for the team from Alzira, securing ninth with a lap of 1m15.487s. Lindblad, meanwhile, could not improve beyond a 1m15.546s, which placed him twelfth. Unfortunately, the stewards later imposed a three-place grid penalty for impeding two other drivers during qualifying, which undoubtedly made his weekend even more difficult.
Saturday’s sprint race, scheduled for 28 laps, got underway around 14:15 with Martí starting from fifth on the reversed grid. As soon as the lights went out, Martí launched like a rocket and, after just three corners, he was already up to second place, having overtaken, among others, Roman Stanek. He completed the opening lap in second behind Joshua Durksen. However, on the second lap, a multi-car incident – involving Lindblad and resulting in one car flipping over – forced the race director to bring out the red flag. After a 30-minute stoppage, the race resumed behind the safety car with Martí in second place. Just a couple of laps later, another incident brought the safety car out again. When the race restarted, Martí initially focused on defending from Stanek, who was running third. It soon became clear, though, that the Campos Racing driver had more pace than race leader Durksen and began putting him under pressure. The decisive move came on lap 17 when Martí overtook Durksen to take the lead. From that point on, Martí was in control, gradually pulling away from his rivals and managing the final laps comfortably to cross the finish line in first place. It marked his second win of the year, following his triumph in Bahrain.
Sunday’s feature race, with 40 laps and a mandatory pit stop, saw both Martí and Lindblad opt to start on the super-soft tyre in a bid to make up as many positions as possible before pitting. The strategy worked perfectly for Martí. At the start, the Catalan driver jumped to fifth, putting himself right in the mix for the victory. Starting from further back, Lindblad couldn’t replicate his teammate’s progress and got stuck in midfield traffic behind drivers running the alternative tire strategy. Due to the high track temperatures, Martí was among the first to pit, along with Victor Martins and Alex Dunne, coming in on lap 6. With his new tires quickly hitting the optimal temperature window, the undercut worked perfectly, allowing the Campos Racing driver to leapfrog both Stanek and Leonardo Fornaroli. Lindblad stopped on lap 7, but was constantly stuck in traffic, unable to show his true pace. With many laps still to go, tire management became crucial, and Martí remained part of the leading group battling for podium positions. The fight involving Martí, Dunne, and Fornaroli was spectacular, with multiple position changes. Up front, Martins began to struggle with his pace, and when Martí attempted to pass him on lap 35, he made slight contact with the Frenchman's car under braking, earning a ten-second time penalty from the stewards. As a result, although Martí crossed the line in fourth place, the penalty dropped him to sixth. Lindblad, who had contact with another car in the final stages, ultimately finished twelfth.
At this point, Lindblad and Martí sit sixth and seventh in the drivers’ standings with 79 and 69 points respectively. In the teams’ classification, Campos Racing continues to lead with 146 points, twenty more than their closest rival.
The action continues this week as the championship heads to the birthplace of British motorsport: Silverstone, which marks the beginning of the second half of the season.
Pepe Martí (Campos Racing Driver in FIA Formula 2): “Yeah, overall a decent weekend at the Red Bull Ring, but a bit frustrating with Sunday’s result. A small mistake had a big impact — after the disqualification of P2, we could’ve been on the podium, but the 10-second penalty dropped us to P6. The weekend started well in free practice, but I didn’t do a good enough job in Quali — just an okay lap, ended up P9, and with the grid drop, things got trickier. Sprint race was perfect though: great start, managed the tires and pace really well, felt super competitive and took the win — very special to do it here in a Red Bull car. On Sunday, made up seven places on lap one, but then lacked a bit of pace compared to yesterday. Honestly, we had enough for P3 today, so I’m a bit disappointed in myself. But still, 18 points from the weekend is a strong result after the triple header. Looking forward to Silverstone.”
Arvid Lindblad (Campos Racing Driver in FIA Formula 2): “Yeah, not a great weekend at the Red Bull Ring. FP was okay, but I didn’t feel fully comfortable in the car, even if the pace was decent with P3. I went into Quali feeling confident, but made a mistake on my second push and then we made a setup change that didn’t work. Bit of miscommunication and ended up P12, just three tenths off pole. Got a penalty for both races too, which didn’t help. On Saturday I was motivated to move forward, but got involved in an incident on lap 2 while trying to pass – not really my fault – and had to retire. It was quite a big one, glad everyone’s okay. Sunday didn’t go to plan either: some issues early in the race, lost time in the pit stop, and struggled with pace. Overall, not a good weekend. We struggled a bit as a team. Pepe did a better job than me, so I need to figure out what went wrong, learn from it, and come back stronger.”
