Dunne dominates Spa qualifying for second Formula 2 pole

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Alex Dunne dominated Formula 2 qualifying at Spa-Francorchamps to claim pole position ahead of Ritomo Miyata.

The McLaren-backed Rodin Motorsport driver was fastest after the first laps were completed at the start of the session, 0.003 seconds ahead of Leonardo Fornaroli.

Invicta Racing’s Fornaroli briefly claimed top spot on his second lap but Dunne then went 0.421s quicker when he crossed the line after three fastest sectors.

Dunne would find another seven tenths of a second on his second set of tyres near the end of the session, setting a 1m56.151s.

Victor Martins moved up into second place, only to be bettered by ART Grand Prix team-mate Ritomo Miyata before Invicta’s Roman Stanek split the pair. All three were over four tenths of a second down on Dunne.

As had been seen earlier in the session, there could have been life in the tyres for a second flying effort following a cooldown lap, but only a handful of drivers would make it across the line in time. Dunne was one of those but ended up aborting his lap anyway, with nobody ultimately improving their time in the top 10.

Campos Racing duo Arvid Lindblad and Pepe Marti are set to share the third row of the grid ahead of Fornaroli and Gabriele Mini, with Dunne’s team-mate Amaury Cordeel ninth on home soil.

Oliver Goethe was without a representative time until he was the first to set a lap on the second set of tyres – one that put him up to second place, 0.064s away from Dunne’s earlier effort. The MP Motorsport driver would slip to 10th but did enough to secure reversed-grid pole for the sprint race, denying his championship leading team-mate Richard Verschoor who could not improve on his final lap.

Hitech duo Luke Browning and Dino Beganovic were the first to see the chequered flag when attempting to go for another lap and had to settle for 12th and 13th just ahead of Verschoor’s nearest title rival Jak Crawford.

Qualifying results