Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Zane Maloney was fastest for Rodin Motorsport in a twice red-flagged Formula 2 qualifying session at Monza.
Maloney denied points leader Isack Hadjar pole for Sunday’s feature race in the closing stages of the 30-minute session, though the Campos Racing driver edged championship rival Paul Aron for second.
Trident’s Roman Stanek was the first driver to set a timed lap, posting an opening benchmark of 1m33.838s before the track action ramped up in the final 20 minutes
Prema’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who was earlier involved in a big crash for Mercedes on his Formula 1 free practice debut, showed no ill-effects as he displaced Stanek at the top by 0.9s on his first effort.
The session was then halted when ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins went off the track on the run to the second Lesmo bend, dislodging a polystyrene marker board which ended up in the middle of the track. Maloney looked on course to post a good time, but was forced to abandon his lap.
Van Amersfoort Racing’s Enzo Fittipaldi moved into second following the resumption, with MP Motorsport’s Dennis Hauger sitting third ahead of Hadjar and Aron when the red flags were brought out for a second time.
Again the stoppage was due to an incident between the two Lesmo bends, with Invicta Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto running wide before losing control and spinning into the gravel. Sitting second in the championship before the weekend, Bortoleto will start both races from the back of the grid.
Six minutes remained on the clock when the session restarted, and AIX Racing’s Joshua Duerksen briefly moved ahead only to have his lap deleted for exceeding track limits.
Hadjar set a 1m32.249 to gain the advantage with less than two minutes remaining, but Maloney posted an even quicker 1m32.160s to snatch feature race pole. Hitech GP’s Aron improved to third ahead of Hauger, with Martins and Antonelli fifth and sixth.
Campos driver Pepe Marti was seventh ahead of Prema’s Ollie Bearman. Fittipaldi slipped back to 10th behind Hitech’s Amaury Cordeel but is set to start from reversed-grid pole in Saturday’s sprint race.
Duerksen ended up 11th ahead Formula 3 graduate Oliver Goethe who was 12th in his first F2 qualifying session having been called up by MP to replace Williams’ F1 debutant Franco Colapinto.
Niels Koolen – also making his F2 debut for AIX this weekend in place of Taylor Barnard – was 21st quickest.
Qualifying results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zane Maloney | Rodin Motorsport | 1m32.160s | 7 | |
| 2 | Isack Hadjar | Campos Racing | 1m32.249s | +0.089s | 9 |
| 3 | Paul Aron | Hitech GP | 1m32.322s | +0.162s | 9 |
| 4 | Dennis Hauger | MP Motorsport | 1m32.341s | +0.181s | 9 |
| 5 | Victor Martins | ART Grand Prix | 1m32.348s | +0.188s | 7 |
| 6 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Prema | 1m32.374s | +0.214s | 8 |
| 7 | Pepe Marti | Campos Racing | 1m32.508s | +0.348s | 8 |
| 8 | Ollie Bearman | Prema | 1m32.519s | +0.359s | 7 |
| 9 | Amaury Cordeel | Hitech GP | 1m32.612s | +0.452s | 7 |
| 10 | Enzo Fittipaldi | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m32.620s | +0.460s | 9 |
| 11 | Joshua Duerksen | AIX Racing | 1m32.628s | +0.468s | 8 |
| 12 | Oliver Goethe | MP Motorsport | 1m32.672s | +0.512s | 8 |
| 13 | Zak O’Sullivan | ART Grand Prix | 1m32.725s | +0.565s | 8 |
| 14 | Jak Crawford | DAMS | 1m32.780s | +0.620s | 7 |
| 15 | Kush Maini | Virtuosi Racing | 1m32.824s | +0.664s | 7 |
| 16 | Rafael Villagomez | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m32.886s | +0.726s | 7 |
| 17 | Ritomo Miyata | Rodin Motorsport | 1m32.896s | +0.736s | 8 |
| 18 | Juan Manuel Correa | DAMS | 1m32.956s | +0.796s | 7 |
| 19 | Richard Verschoor | Trident | 1m32.976s | +0.816s | 7 |
| 20 | Roman Stanek | Trident | 1m33.191s | +1.031s | 13 |
| 21 | Niels Koolen | AIX Racing | 1m33.241s | +1.081s | 10 |
| 22 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Virtuosi Racing | 1m51.807s | +19.647s | 3 |