De Vries takes F2 pole in Monaco qualifying, Ilott P2

Photo: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F2 Championship

Nyck de Vries took a commanding pole position for the Formula 2 feature race at Monaco, as Callum Ilott earned his best-ever qualifying position by topping his group on his circuit debut.

The field was split into two groups, with Ilott topping the first group with a 1m21.462s, just 0.007s faster than Mick Schumacher, who also enjoyed his best qualifying session to date.

However, the second group proved to be much quicker, with de Vries rocketing to the top of the timesheets, on a 1m20.676s, over seven tenths quicker than Ilott’s benchmark, and 0.248s quicker than Luca Ghiotto.

With de Vries quicker than Ilott, the second group slot into the odd-numbered places on the grid, with the first group taking up their positions on the even-numbered side.

It means Ghiotto will start third ahead of Schumacher, with points leader and practice pacesetter Nicholas Latifi completing the top five for DAMS.

However, Latifi will drop back to P8 because of a three-place grid penalty he picked up during practice for crossing the white line at pit exit when the red flag was shown.

This promotes his team-mate Sergio Sette Camara to fifth place on the grid. He was less than a tenth off his group’s benchmark.

Sean Gelael equals his best qualifying of the year in seventh place, but will line-up sixth as a result of Latifi’s penalty. GP3 champion Anthoine Hubert also benefits, moving up to P7, ahead of Latifi.

Rounding out the top 10 was Nobuharu Matsushita, who lost half of practice due to a mechanical issue, and his team-mate Louis Deletraz who makes it an all-Carlin fifth row.

On his return to the series, Artem Markelov managed to secure 11th on the grid as he looks for his third win around the streets on Monaco.

Nikita Mazepin will join him on the sixth row, ahead of Dorian Boccolacci, who crashed on the exit of the Swimming Pool section with just a couple of minutes to go in the second group.

The Campos driver managed to get his car back to the pits, avoiding the need for a red flag but was unable to rejoin the session.

Baku feature race winner Jack Aitken will be only 18th on the grid after he was blocked in the final sector by?Mahaveer Raghunathan.

Qualifying results