Hadjar boosts F2 title hopes with pole at Silverstone

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Campos Racing’s Isack Hadjar boosted his Formula 2 title hopes by topping qualifying at Silverstone, while points leader Paul Aron was hampered by a late spin.

Hadjar lapped 0.251 seconds faster than ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins, with MP Motorsport duo Dennis Hauger and Franco Colapinto third and fourth. Having set the pace initially, Hitech GP’s Aron slipped back to 12th.

Prema’s Ollie Bearman put down an early benchmark of 1m40.918s to lead Virtuosi Racing’s Kush Maini and Rodin Motorsport’s Zane Maloney, and Aron soon claimed second with a lap 0.040s shy of the pace.

Hauger moved to the top with a 1m40.554s approaching the 10-minute mark but he was swiftly beaten by both Maini and Aron, the latter going quickest by almost 0.2s.

ART GP’s Zak O’Sullivan and Maloney also improved to hold third and fourth at the halfway stage, while Hauger was shuffled down to fifth ahead of Bearman who bettered his own personal best.

As drivers commenced their second runs inside the final 10 minutes, Aron dramatically spun at Abbey and gradually tumbled down the order having being unable to improve on his time before the end of the session.

Hauger was the first to dip under the 1m40s mark to take first place away from Aron, with Colapinto briefly going fastest before Hadjar set a 1m39.368s which was good enough to clinch pole.

Martins and Bearman improved to second and fourth respectively and, having been demoted to seventh by Invicta’s Gabriel Bortoleto and DAMS’ Jak Crawford, Hauger responded with a late effort to climb to third.

Bearman ended up fifth ahead of Bortoleto and Crawford, while Maini was eighth having improved late on. Maloney had a lap time deleted in the closing stages for exceeding track limits, but he made his next lap count to qualify ninth ahead of Prema’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli who provisionally took reversed-grid pole for the sprint race.

Qualifying results