Beganovic wins extra close fight at Imola for first F2 pole

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Dino Beganovic claimed his maiden Formula 2 pole at Imola, as championship leader Richard Verschoor qualified down in 19th place.

A red flag stoppage with six minutes left on the clock brought an early end to what was scheduled to be a half-hour session, denying drivers a final attempt to beat Hitech GP driver Beganovic.

He had just jumped to the top of the times, 0.003 seconds ahead of Prema’s Sebastian Montoya, when red flags waved following an off for Kush Maini. The DAMS driver had lost control of his car and made heavy contact with the wall, causing rear-right damage. With only a short window before when Formula 1 practice was due to begin, the decision was made to not restart the session.

Rodin Motorsport’s free practice pacesetter Alex Dunne was fastest early on in qualifying, ahead of ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins. Arvid Lindblad briefly took provisional pole for Campos Racing before Martins jumped back to the top, 0.3s clear of the rest of the field.

Invicta Racing’s Leonardo Fornaroli and Dunne got between Martins and Lindblad on the timesheet before pitting to switch tyres ahead of their final runs.

Montoya was one of the first to head back out for that, having been at the tail end of the top 10 and needing to make a big improvement. He did just that, jumping up to first place with a lap 0.003s faster than Martins’ previous benchmark.

It was not long before he was demoted to second himself, as Beganovic set a 1m27.418s that would ultimately earn him pole.

The only other driver to improve before the session-ending red flags was MP Motorsport’s Oliver Goethe, who jumped up from outside the top 10 to go eighth fastest.

That left the top two in the championship in the bottom half of the order. Goethe’s team-mate Verschoor was 19th, and Campos’s Pepe Marti qualified 12th.

Hitech’s Luke Browning qualified seventh, and completing the top 10 were Maini and team-mate Jak Crawford.

Qualifying results