Vips takes pole in wet at Imola in delayed F2 qualifying

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Juri Vips took pole position in fading light at Imola for the Formula 2 feature race, of Ayumu Iwasa and Jack Doohan.

Poor weather conditions and multiple red flags had delayed F2’s qualifying at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, and the track was still wet when the session did get underway in the evening.

Campos Racing’s free practice pacesetter Ralph Boschung was quickest after the opening laps, but was knocked off the top spot by Van Amersfoort Racing rookie Jake Hughes and then Hitech GP’s Vips.

A brief red flag, brought out by Boschung’s team-mate Olli Caldwell running into the gravel, disrupted running shortly before most of the field were set to come into the pits at the end of their first runs.

As the conditions then improved, laptimes tumbled in the second half of qualifying.

Boschung again appeared at the front of the order, but Vips was soon back on top with a 1m40.221s lap. Though others found improvements, none could beat his time.

Fellow Red Bull junior Iwasa came close for DAMS, jumping up the order in the closing stages and ending the day with a laptime just 0.157 seconds slower.

A late improvement from Doohan put the Virtuosi Racing driver in third, ahead of Boschung and Prema’s Dennis Hauger.

Iwasa’s team-mate Roy Nissany surprised to qualify sixth, ahead of Theo Pourchare and Jehan Daruvala who span late on but was able to get going under his own power. Marcus Armstrong and Logan Sargeant completed the top 10.

It was a difficult qualifying for championship leader Felipe Drugovich. He was inside the top five at the mid-point of the session but couldn’t keep up with the rate of improvements in the second half and qualified 12th, one position ahead of MP Motorsport team-mate Clement Novalak.

Qualifying results