Stanek leads Invicta team-mate Fornaroli for first F2 pole

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Roman Stanek claimed his first Formula 2 pole position at the Hungaroring in an Invicta Racing one-two.

The Czech driver first hit the top of the timesheet early on, demoting MP Motorsport’s Oliver Goethe with a 1m29.167s.

His team-mate Richard Verschoor was third and just over 0.2 seconds slower than Stanek, whose team-mate Leonardo Fornaroli opted to wait for clear air and took to the track after the field’s first flying laps.

Fornaroli’s initial 1m28.935s laptime was good enough for provisional pole, but a track limits violation at turn one meant he dropped back down to the rear of the field. Now in clean air but on used tyres, he struggled to match Stanek and went fourth fastest with a 1m29.418s.

With 20 minutes remaining, Campos Racing’s Lindblad improved to second but was over 0.4s off pole. Stanek then lowered the pace, improving by a further 0.4s to 1m28.779s.

Goethe quickly bettered Lindblad, before DAMS’ Jak Crawford took to the front row with a 1m28.952s, just over 0.1s shy of the dominant Invicta.

Having opted to stay in the pits before attempting one final lap, Fonaroli looked set to beat Stanek’s time and steal pole position. He went quickest in the first two sectors, but a poor final sector meant he ended qualifying 0.146s behind.

Prema’s Sebastian Montoya had followed Fornaroli out and provisionally improved to fourth, but was another to fall foul of track limits and that dropped him to 18th.

Hitech GP’s Luke Browning and AIX Racing’s Joshua Durksen qualifed fourth and fifth, both within a third of a second of pole. Goethe ended qualifying in sixth, ahead of ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins and Lindblad.

Reversed-grid pole for the sprint race will go to Campos’s Pepe Marti, who qualified 10th behind Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Dunne.

Qualifying results