Martins grabs pole ahead of title contenders in tense final F2 qualifying

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Victor Martins took pole for the final Formula 2 round of the season at Yas Marina with the three title protagonists occupying the next three positions.

Points leader Gabriel Bortoleto was fortunate to cross the line for his fastest lap with seconds to spare before a crash for Rafael Villagomez caused a red flag and limited improvements in the closing minutes.

Campos Racing’s Isack Hadjar had been building up his pace through the session, confident that pole was his for the taking but was unable to improve. Indeed, one of the few drivers who could find time in the final minutes was Hitech GP’s Paul Aron, whose final lap moved him ahead of the Red Bull junior.

DAMS had set the early pace with first Dino Beganovic and then Jak Crawford moving to the top of the times, although as other drivers posted flying laps it was Martins who emerged on top, 0.254s ahead of Invicta Racing’s Bortoleto with Aron in third.

As drivers looked to find track space, five were noted for driving unnecessarily slowly.

The top three matched sector times on their second run, with Martins improving his time further, before Bortoleto swept past him with a 1m36.050s to go top of the times.

His team-mate Kush Maini moved up to third, with Prema’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli initially jumping to second before the Invicta pair pushed him back to fourth.

Hadjar, however, could only manage 14th fastest on his first flying lap, but improved to fifth on his second flying lap at the end of the opening stint, edging out Aron by just 0.001s.

With 14 minutes left all 22 cars were back in the pits, although not before Bortoleto had posted a sector-best time in S2 on his in-lap.

Two minutes later, Beganovic led the field out of the pit-lane for their second stints on a fresh set of supersoft tyres, with the search for clean air beginning immediately.

Martins was the first to improve, moving to the front with a 1m35.745s, with Beganovic leaping from 15th to second.

Hadjar immediately demoted Beganovic, before seeing his time in turn beaten by Bortoleto by 0.035s with just seven seconds to spare as an off from Van Amersfoort Racing’s Villagomez brought out the red flag with just over four minutes on the clock.

Hadjar was kicking himself for what he felt was a minor error that had cost him time, leaving him third, ahead of Beganovic and Aron as everybody returned to the pits.

Bortoleto was taking no chances at the restart, getting away at the front of the field, while Hadjar took the opposite approach, letting his rivals go before making his way out at the tail of the pack.

Irrespective of strategy, however, neither was able to improve, as Aron found space and tyre life to nab third from a frustrated Hadjar.

The only other improvement at the front of the grid saw Maini move up to sixth, benefitting in part from the tow given by his team-mate ahead.

Beganovic held on for an excellent fifth place, his second top five qualifying performance in a week, following his fourth in Qatar.

Pepe Marti took seventh for Campos Racing ahead of Rodin Motorsport’s Ritomo Miyata.

Qualifying results