Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Alpine junior Victor Martins took his third Formula 2 pole of the season during a shortened qualifying at Silverstone.
The ART Grand Prix driver put in a late flying lap following two red flag periods to finish 0.113 seconds clear of Campos Racing’s Kush Maini.
DAMS duo Ayuma Iwasa and Arthur Leclerc set an identical laptime of 1m41.100s at the start of the scheduled 30-minute session to briefly sit first and second before the pair were edged by Ollie Bearman and Enzo Fittipaldi..
Martins then moved to the top with a 1m40.576s lap ahead of his team-mate Theo Pourchaire, who was soon demoted to third by Richard Verschoor. Dennis Hauger moved into fourth ahead of Bearman, with Maini sixth early on.
The session was red-flagged at the 10-minute mark when Amaury Cordeel suffered a heavy crash on the exit of Copse, the Virtuosi Racing driver confirming to his team on the radio that he was okay.
The red flags were briefly shown for a second time within moments of the cars returning to track, with officials reducing the time remaining in the session to less than 10 minutes.
Leclerc was the first to improve at the resumption, posting a 1m40.198s to briefly top the timesheet. Despite a wide moment at Brooklands, Iwasa then went quickest before almost immediately being beaten by Bearman.
But Martins then set a 1m39.832s to snatch pole, while Maini moved into second ahead of Doohan, who also improved. Iwasa bettered his laptime to then edge Doohan to third by 0.005s while Bearman slipped back to fifth.
Fittipaldi ended qualifying 0.002s behind Bearman in sixth, with the Brazilian driver’s Rodin Carlin team-mate Zane Maloney seventh, while Pourchaire qualified eighth and Isack Hadjar took ninth.
The yellow flags were waved in the final seconds after Frederik Vesti ground to a halt on track, and Prema’s points leader ended the session in 10th to provisionally take pole for the reversed-grid sprint race.
There was also late drama for Van Amersfoort Racing’s Juan Manuel Correa, who had a high-speed spin at Maggotts.
Qualifying results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gaps | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Victor Martins | ART Grand Prix | 1m39.832s | 9 | |
| 2 | Kush Maini | Campos Racing | 1m39.945s | +0.113s | 10 |
| 3 | Ayumu Iwasa | DAMS | 1m39.952s | +0.120s | 10 |
| 4 | Jack Doohan | Virtuosi Racing | 1m39.957s | +0.125s | 10 |
| 5 | Ollie Bearman | Prema | 1m39.989s | +0.157s | 9 |
| 6 | Enzo Fittipaldi | Carlin | 1m39.991s | +0.159s | 10 |
| 7 | Zane Maloney | Carlin | 1m40.001s | +0.169s | 10 |
| 8 | Theo Pourchaire | ART Grand Prix | 1m40.019s | +0.187s | 9 |
| 9 | Isack Hadjar | Hitech GP | 1m40.026s | +0.194s | 10 |
| 10 | Frederik Vesti | Prema | 1m40.052s | +0.220s | 8 |
| 11 | Roy Nissany | PHM by Charouz | 1m40.135s | +0.303s | 10 |
| 12 | Arthur Leclerc | DAMS | 1m40.198s | +0.366s | 10 |
| 13 | Jehan Daruvala | MP Motorsport | 1m40.314s | +0.482s | 8 |
| 14 | Dennis Hauger | MP Motorsport | 1m40.368s | +0.536s | 9 |
| 15 | Jak Crawford | Hitech GP | 1m40.400s | +0.568s | 10 |
| 16 | Roman Stanek | Trident | 1m40.526s | +0.694s | 10 |
| 17 | Richard Verschoor | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m40.561s | +0.729s | 9 |
| 18 | Ralph Boschung | Campos Racing | 1m40.815s | +0.983s | 9 |
| 19 | Brad Benavides | PHM by Charouz | 1m40.950s | +1.118s | 10 |
| 20 | Clement Novalak | Trident | 1m41.106s | +1.274s | 10 |
| 21 | Amaury Cordeel | Virtuosi Racing | 1m41.457s | +1.625s | 4 |
| 22 | Juan Manuel Correa | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m42.084s | +2.252s | 9 |