Leonardo Fornaroli has just clinched the Formula Two title with one round to spare here in Qatar by finishing second in today’s feature race.
Fornaroli, 20, won last year’s Formula Three title without winning a race, but has taken four victories so far this season and scored points in all bar two races to forge a healthy lead at the top of the standings heading to Qatar.
He finished sixth in yesterday’s sprint and was on pole for the feature race before losing the lead off the line to Williams F1 youngster Victor Martins. Martins won the race by 1.2 seconds ahead of Fornaroli.
But the result is enough — for now, at least — to give Fornaroli the title after closest rival Jak Crawford only finished 11th, while Richard Verschoor was sixth.
However, Arvid Lindblad is under investigation for a safety car infringement that could yet drop him down the order and promote Verschoor a position. If that happens, the title race would mathematically still be alive going to Abu Dhabi — although Fornaroli’s lead would be 39 points with 39 still to go, making it a formality at this stage.
Fornaroli has emulated F1 drivers Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Oscar Piastri by going back-to-back in the feeder categories across F3 and F2. But he is not currently affiliated to any F1 team.