McLaren Formula 1 junior Alex Dunne has been stripped of his Formula 2 feature race victory at Spa-Francorchamps, while disqualification for the initial runner-up, Red Bull junior Arvid Lindblad, means he doesn't inherit the victory either.
Dunne dominated qualifying on Friday at Spa, taking pole by 0.419s in dry conditions, but faced much closer competition in a rain-affected feature race on Sunday.
He had to nurse tyres that were "degging off a cliff" during his opening stint, keeping a pack of the chasing cars just behind him.
Dunne just about held the race lead ahead of Roman Stanek's Invicta Racing-run car when he pitted for fresh wet tyres later than Stanek, fending off an attack into the Les Combes chicane.
With Lindblad now up to second, Dunne held the lead thereafter until the race was red-flagged (it was not restarted) while under safety car conditions, when Oliver Goethe's car expired, firing out smoke and grinding to a halt partway up the Kemmel Straight.
But Dunne was penalised after the race for falling foul of Article 1.6.1 of the F2 technical regulations, which states that all cars have to be operated in accordance with the system user manuals issued to all teams.
Within those manuals is a defined start set-up procedure for all drivers to complete at the start of the formation lap.
Dunne was found not to have engaged this procedure and was referred to the stewards by the FIA F2 technical delegate Florian Bartsch.
Rodin team manager Benn Huntingford said that the race director had announced that the formation lap would be behind the safety car and be a rolling start.
The team therefore decided against Dunne activating the start set-up procedure. Dunne asked his team for confirmation and they confirmed he didn't need to.
"Having considered the matter extensively, the stewards determined that [Dunne] was in breach of Article 1.6.1 of the FIA Formula 2 technical regulations and Article 11.15 of the F2 2025 system user manual, and impose a 10-second time penalty in accordance with the 2025 FIA F2 penalty guidelines."
There is precedent for such an offence, as Kush Maini was disqualified from the 2024 Baku F2 feature race for the same infringement, although that was a standing start in which Maini stalled on the grid and triggered a frightening multi-car pile-up.
Given the field had closed up under the late-race safety car, that penalty was particularly painful for Dunne, who dropped from first to ninth place.
It was not the first time Dunne has lost a big result post-race in 2025, either, as excessive plank wear meant he lost second place in the Austrian F2 feature race.
Dunne had briefly retaken the points lead with his Spa victory, but the penalty means he's now only fourth in the standings, 11 points off new championship leader Leonardo Fornaroli.
Lindblad's disqualification
Dunne's penalty should have handed victory to Red Bull's Lindblad but he was disqualified because his tyre pressures were found to be too low at the end of the race.
Pirelli has specified prior to the weekend that the minimum wet front tyre pressure was 16.0 PSI, with a minimum wet rear tyre pressure of 14.0 PSI.
All four of Lindblad's tyres were below that minimum amount:
Front left: 15.74 PSI
Front right: 15.61 PSI
Rear left: 13.59 PSI
Rear right: 13.70 PSI
His Campos team did not contest this, accepting that they had made a breach, and the team representative said he was present when the pressures were adjusted and had no objections.
That continues a tricky run for Lindblad, who has scored just five points in the last three weekends.
Dunne's penalty and Lindblad's disqualification meant Stanek instead inherited his second victory in F2.
Ritomo Miyata and Williams F1 junior Luke Browning completed the revised podium.
