Red Bull starlet disqualified from race at Belgian GP and suffers ultimate heartbreak

Red Bull junior prodigy Arvid Lindblad was stripped of the Formula Two feature race victory at the Belgian Grand Prix after the FIA stewards judged all four of his tyres to be below the minimum permitted pressures. This led to his disqualification, stripping him of any points from Sunday's outing.

Lindblad had worked his way up to second on the road at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps on Sunday, overtaking Ritomo Miyata after the Japanese racer spun later in the race. The 17-year-old crossed the line behind McLaren junior driver Alex Dunne, who took a third feature race victory of the campaign. However, the stewards judged that Dunne did not 'engage the start set-up procedure at the start of the formation lap', hitting him with a 10-second time penalty that dropped him to the fringes of the point-paying positions. This handed the victory to Lindblad, reigniting his title hopes.

However, Lindblad's victory was short-lived, and after a trip to visit the stewards, the Surrey-born teenager was disqualified for violating the series' tyre pressure regulations. This meant that Invicta Racing's Roman Stanek inherited his first feature race triumph of the year.

"The Team accepted the FIA Technical Delegate's measurements and acknowledged that it followed that Article 10.4.3 of the Technical Regulations had been breached in this case," the FIA's report read. "The Team Representative also stated that he was present during the tyre checking and had no objections with the measurements.

"Having considered the matter extensively, the Stewards determined that Car 4 (Lindblad) was found to be technically non-conformant with the F2 Technical Regulations, and, consistent with the established precedent, disqualify Car 4 from Race 2."

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With the punishments for Dunne and Lindblad taken into account, reigning Formula Three champion Leonardo Fornaroli now leads the F2 standings. The Italian has scored top-eight finishes in all but two of the 17 races this season, replicating the consistency that led Gabriel Bortoleto to his second successive junior title in 2024.

With his title hopes dashed, Lindblad will look to respond in Hungary next weekend as he targets a promotion into F1 with Racing Bulls next year. The teenager is the obvious replacement for Isack Hadjar, should the French-Algerian starlet oust Yuki Tsunoda as Max Verstappen's team-mate.

The teenager is already impressing Red Bull bosses, too. "Lindblad was back in the car the week after the British GP and completed more than 100 laps, showing excellent physical condition and competitive lap times," Helmut Marko wrote in his Speedweek column after the Brit's debut FP1 outing at Silverstone.