Photo: Rodin Motorsport
Rodin Motorsport produced a dominant display as both Alex Dunne and Martinius Stenshorne secured pole positions ahead of Formula 2’s double feature race weekend in Baku.
Thursday’s qualifying session was split into two 15-minute sessions, the first deciding the grid for both Friday’s sprint and feature race while the second session decided the starting positions for Saturday’s final feature race.
MP Motorsport’s Oliver Goethe was first to set a benchmark time with a lap in 1m59.374s when the first session got underway after a short delay for track repairs.
It did not take long for the German to be toppled though, first by Stenshorne who set a more representative 1m55.821s, then by team-mate Dunne, a 1m55.383s putting the Irishman 0.230s clear of ART Grand Prix’s Kush Maini who split the Rodin pair.
The second runs saw Dunne unable to better his previous time, the only improvement coming from his Norwegian teammate who narrowed the gap to his teammate to 0.053s.
Campos Racing’s Noel Leon remained third ahead of the final set of runs while his team-mate and championship leader Nikola Tsolov sat in ninth, marginally ahead of his championship rival, Invicta Racing’s Rafael Camara.
The Brazilian improved on his tenth place position, moving up to fifth, 0.238s adrift of top spot, courtesy of a tow down the long straight from his team-mate Joshua Duerksen.
With five minutes to go the yellow flags were out briefly as Roman Bilinski, Dunne and Gabriele Mini all ran wide at Turn 1, preventing improvements from those on track.
Dino Beganovic was the only driver to make a significant gain, with a sensational opening two sectors but missing the benefit of a tow at the end of the lap. Nevertheless, the time was good enough to move the DAMS driver into eighth place and pushing Tsolov down to 10th, meaning the Bulgarian will start Friday’s sprint race from pole.
Dunne completed a Rodin 1-2, with Stenshorne heading Leon and Maini. Camara completed the top five of the first qualifying session with the field quickly back in the pits before they returned for the second session.
It was the Ferrari junior who set the benchmark early on, bettering Leon’s time of 1m54.477s by 0.250s to claim provisional pole.
As a number of teams opted to change tyres, Prema’s Mari Boya stayed out and moved himself into second.
The Spaniard looked set to remain there only for the Rodin duo to return to the track in the closing stages and set the timing screens alight as the chequered flag fell.
Dunne was first across the line, a 1m54.173s enough to topple Camara, before Stenshorne eclipsed his teammate, dipping into the 1.53s to go 0.445s clear of the the Alpine junior.
Camara and Boya held onto third and fourth with Maini once again claiming a top five finish, with Tsolov back in eighth.