Hauger storms to pole in F2’s interrupted Melbourne qualifying

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

A blistering late lap awarded Dennis Hauger pole position for the third round of the Formula 2 season in a twice interrupted qualifying session in Melbourne.

The session was first red flagged six minutes in and before representative laptimes were set. ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins had ran excessively over the kerb exiting turn six and lost control of his car, spinning and stalling. As a consequence, he is set to start both races this weekend from last place.

Qualifying restarted and Virtuosi Racing’s Kush Maini was first to set a lap, which was soon beaten by Prema’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Hitech GP’s Paul Aron was on top once all had completed one flying lap, while DAMS’ Jak Crawford returned to the pits with a puncture after brushing the wall at the exit of turn five.

Several drivers beat Aron’s benchmark on their second lap, but the Estonian did the same as he improved by six tenths of a second to 1m29.385s to be back on top. When the first runs ended Aron was on top by just 0.003 secons over MP Motorsport’s Hauger, with Campos Racing’s Isack Hadjar in third and also within 0.1s of the pace.

When drivers went out on track again on a new set of supersoft compound tyres, a blistering third sector lifted Rodin Motorsport’s Zane Maloney to first place by 0.011s. Red flags then waved as Crawford went off and into the barriers at turn 12. Several drivers had to abort flying laps as a consequence.

The track went green again with four minutes left on the clock, enough time one flying lap to be set.

Maini rose to the top of the times despite encountering team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto, who had gone off at turn 12, before the last corner. Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 junior Antonelli then went fastest, bettering the Alpine junior by almost 0.3s. Trident’s Richard Verschoor also went faster than Maini.

Yellow flags were waved at turn six as Van Amersfoort Racing’s Enzo Fittipaldi found the wall. However, that did not prevent Hauger from going fastest by 0.344s to take pole.

Maloney and Aron were shuffled down to fifth and sixth, Hadjar qualified eighth behind team-mate Pepe Marti, Bortoleto was ninth fastest and rounding out the top 10 meant Trident’s Roman Stanek picked up reversed-grid pole for the sprint race.

Prema’s Ollie Bearman could only go 16th fastest on his F2 return after debuting in F1 last time out in Jeddah.

Qualifying results