Beganovic grabs pole at F2 season opener in Melbourne

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Ferrari junior Dino Beganovic grabbed pole position in a late dash at the end of the first Formula 2 qualifying of the year in Melbourne.

DAMS driver Beganovic started and ended the session on top, going quickest with his very first lap of the session ahead of the Invicta Racing duo of Joshua Duerksen and Rafael Camara and Campos Racing’s Nikola Tsolov.

Martinius Stenshorne then briefly took over at the top with his second lap before Tsolov did similar, moving 0.367 seconds clear of the field.

Camara managed to get back up to third just before the session was interrupted by a red flag after Prema’s Mari Boya went off and into the barriers at Turn 12.

The field emerged again for their second runs in the final third of the session but running was soon halted once more when Gabriele Mini’s MP Motorsport car slowed to a stop, leaving the practice pacesetter to join Boya at the back of the grid for both races.

Just three minutes were left on the clock when cars returned to the track, but the timing screens would be lit up by improvements across the field.

Alex Dunne was the first to knock Tsolov off top spot by 0.342s, only for his Rodin Motorsport team-mate Stenshorne to go 0.128s faster. Beganovic then went quickest by 0.216s, claiming pole with his lap of 1m28.695s.

Noel Leon popped into fourth on his F2 debut with team-mate Tsolov improving his time but only to go fifth. Camara was sixth ahead of Kush Maini, Oliver Goethe and Duerksen, with Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak rounding out the top 10 and claiming reversed-grid pole for the sprint race.

After missing much of practice following an early crash, Colton Herta came 14th in his first F2 qualifying session, just one place behind Hitech team-mate Ritomo Miyata.

Qualifying results