Crawford claims pole in incident-packed Baku F2 qualifying

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Jak Crawford claimed pole position in an incident-packed Formula 2 qualifying session in Azerbaijan.

Three red flags disrupted running on the streets of Baku, including one that brought an early end to the session with just one minute remaining. 

Crawford topped the times before the second red flag, with a time of 1m54.791s putting him just 0.019s clear of championship leader Leonardo Fornaroli.

Only half the field had completed their first flying laps when the first red flag was brought out less than eight minutes into the session. Amaury Cordeel had been on his first flying lap when he hit the wall at Turn 13, damaging his suspension.

Alex Dunne had jumped to the top of the order just before the red flag came out, but there was still over a second to be found on track when the session resumed again.

Fornaroli and Gabriele Mini both briefly took provisional pole position before Crawford jumped to the top of the times. Crawford had gotten a tow from Mini, giving him a few tenths of a second over the Prema Racing driver. 

Dunne, meanwhile, had gone fastest in the first sector before tapping the wall and damaging his steering. He was able to continue and made it back to the pits for repairs before his final run.

As the field returned to the pits before the final runs, Crawford was ahead of Fornaroli, Mini and Victor Martins. Nobody would get the chance to improve on those times.

Martins brought out the second red flag when he ran into the wall at Turn 3. His brakes then caught fire, extending the clean-up period.

There was time for just one flying lap when the session resumed again. Dunne once again went fastest of anyone in the first sector before a third red flag stopped the session for good.

Roman Stanek had run deep into the Turn 1 escape road, as had been done by other drivers early in the session. As he returned to the track, he ran onto the racing line as John Bennett passed on his flying lap. The two collided and the red flag was thrown. The session would not be resumed.

Dunne was fifth when the session ended, but Martins in fourth faces losing his lap time for bringing out the red flag and is likely to drop down the order.

Luke Browning was sixth quickest, having set the exact same lap time as Dunne in the first part of the session.

Pepe Marti was seventh fastest, ahead of Martinius Stenshorne and Stanek, who could also lose his best time. Sebastian Montoya was 10th with Dino Beganovic just outside the top 10 in 11th. Third in the championship, Richard Verschoor could only manage 13th quickest.

Qualifying results