Van Hoepen claims maiden F2 pole in disrupted Montreal qualifying

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Laurens van Hoepen claimed his maiden Formula 2 pole position after a stop-start qualifying session on the championship’s debut in Montreal.

Invicta Racing’s Rafael Camara had to settle for second with practice pacesetter Alex Dunne rounding out the top three.

It was the other Invicta driver Joshua Duerksen who set the initial lap to beat of a 1m22.914s. That was quickly topped by Miami race winner Gabriele Mini who shot to the front with a 1m22.615s before Camara set the provisional pole lap, going 0.005 seconds clear of the Italian.

More fast laps followed with Van Amersfoort Racing’s Nico Varrone heading to the top with championship leader Nikola Tsolov 0.295s adrift in second.

Noel Leon briefly moved into second ahead of his teammate before Varrone was displaced as Camara returned to the front once again with a 1m22.025s.

Building on an impressive start to the season, Trident’s van Hoepen moved into third with Dino Beganovic in fourth.

At the rear of the field, the Hitech duo of Colton Herta and Ritomo Miyata sat over a second away from the front.

Drivers returned to the pits for a short break before returning to action with 12 minutes remaining.

Oliver Goethe led the field out but the German lost the rear of his car heading through the turns 3 and 4 complex, hitting the wall and breaking his rear suspension to bring out the first red flag of the session.

With eight minutes to go running resumed but nobody managed to set a reasonable lap before ART Grand Prix’s Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak slammed into the turn 4 wall, brining out the red flag once more.

While the red flag ruined van Hoepen’s lap after he had set two personal besets in the opening sectors, it was music to Camara’s ears after he hit the wall at turn 4 too, damaging his suspension which his Invicta team then managed to fix during the 10-minute pause to running.

Four minutes remained as drivers returned to the track with Camara still clear of Varrone and van Hoepen, both seeking their first pole positions in F2.

Purple sectors immediately came in, Leon brushing the wall in the final corner on his way to the front with a 1m21.881s before his teammate Tsolov went to the top with a 1.21.789.

Martinius Stenshorne dislodged the Campos pair with a 1m21.744s before his teammate Dunne bettered his time, going to the front with a 1m21.709s.

As the chequered flag fell, Tsolov found pace to move to second place and split the Rodin duo before van Hoepen shot to the top with a 1m21.422s, handing Trident just its third pole of the modern F2 era, its first since Richard Verschoor in Baku back in 2024.

Camara was 0.267s adrift in second after his teammate Durksen seemingly gave van Hoepen a large tow down the penultimate straight after clipping the wall at turn 8.

Van Hoepen’s teammate John Bennett managed to bring home seventh for Trident which would translate to fourth in the sprint race, with Mini taking reversed-grid pole ahead of Rafael Villagomez and Leon.

Qualifying results