Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Prema pair Ollie Bearman and Andrea Kimi Antonelli were among those to get deleted laps reinstated after Formula 2 qualifying at Imola, putting them second and fourth on the grid.
Among a flurry of lap-time deletions at the end of qualifying, Ferrari junior Bearman was demoted to 16th in the provisional results and Mercedes protege Antonelli to 18th, where they would have started both races.
However, around two hours later their best laps were removed from the list of those that had been deleted, moving them back to the front two rows for the feature race, Bearman alongside pole-sitter Gabriel Bortoleto and Antonelli next to third-placed Isack Hadjar.
“I wasn’t looking forward to starting from the back rows for another weekend because so far in F2 [this year] I’ve only started at the back,” Bearman later told media including Formula Scout in the press conference. “So it was looking like a long weekend and then gladly the lap got reinstated.
“It’s a bit of a shock really [to get laps deleted] because where we’re sitting we cannot see the difference between being on the right line and being two millimetres over. And in a track like this, if you are two millimetres over… it feels like if you do track limits you’re in the gravel and of course that’s not an advantage.
“So I find it a bit strange how we have so many track limits deletions with such fine margins when we have gravel stopping us, it doesn’t make sense to me.”
Others to get laps reinstated included Paul Aron, Franco Colapinto and Amaury Cordeel, moving them back up to eighth, ninth and 10th respectively.
Amended qualifying results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gaps | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Invicta Racing | 1m27.056s | 13 | |
| 2 | Ollie Bearman | Prema | 1m27.111s* | +0.055s | 12 |
| 3 | Isack Hadjar | Campos Racing | 1m27.272s | +0.216s | 12 |
| 4 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Prema | 1m27.320s* | +0.264s | 13 |
| 5 | Joshua Duerksen | AIX Racing | 1m27.384s | +0.328s | 12 |
| 6 | Zane Maloney | Rodin Motorsport | 1m27.428s | +0.372s | 14 |
| 7 | Roman Stanek | Trident | 1m27.467s | +0.411s | 11 |
| 8 | Paul Aron | Hitech GP | 1m27.475s* | +0.419s | 12 |
| 9 | Franco Colapinto | MP Motorsport | 1m27.614s* | +0.558s | 12 |
| 10 | Amaury Cordeel | Hitech GP | 1m28.663s* | +0.607s | 12 |
| 11 | Enzo Fittipaldi | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m27.739s | +0.683s | 13 |
| 12 | Taylor Barnard | AIX Racing | 1m27.774s* | +0.718s | 12 |
| 13 | Dennis Hauger | MP Motorsport | 1m27.795s | +0.739s | 12 |
| 14 | Pepe Marti | Campos Racing | 1m27.802s | +0.746s | 12 |
| 15 | Richard Verschoor | Trident | 1m27.886s | +0.830s | 11 |
| 16 | Ritomo Miyata | Rodin Motorsport | 1m28.050s | +0.994s | 14 |
| 17 | Kush Maini | Invicta Racing | 1m28.061s | +1.005s | 11 |
| 18 | Zak O’Sullivan | ART Grand Prix | 1m28.128s | +1.072s | 13 |
| 19 | Rafael Villagomez | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m28.131s* | +1.075s | 13 |
| 20 | Juan Manuel Correa | DAMS | 1m28.192s* | +1.136s | 13 |
| 21 | Jak Crawford | DAMS | 1m28.333s* | +1.277s | 8 |
| 22 | Victor Martins | ART Grand Prix | 1m28.569s | +1.513s | 7 |
* lap time reinstated after previously being deleted