Nyck de Vries heads McLaren junior 1-2 in F2 qualifying at Sochi

Nyck de Vries took his second Formula 2 pole of the season at Sochi, beating fellow McLaren junior Lando Norris by almost a quarter of a second.

Prema driver de Vries set his fastest lap right at the end, not long after Norris had demoted ART Grand Prix’s championship leader George Russell from the top spot.

DAMS duo Nicholas Latifi and Alexander Albon were fourth and fifth, with Latifi being the last of the drivers to get within half a second of de Vries.

Luca Ghiotto was sixth for Campos Racing, six places ahead of new team-mate Roberto Merhi, with Russian Time’s Tadasuke Makino and Norris’s Carlin team-mate Sergio Sette Camara qualifying seventh and eighth, both within a second of pole.

Russell’s team-mate Jack Aitken and Arden International’s Maximilian Gunther completed the top 10.

GP3 regular Niko Kari qualified 16th on his F2 debut with MP Motorsport, three spots ahead of Artem Markelov, who was effectively slowest at his home event, ahead only of Arjun Maini who spun and stalled before setting a competitive time.

Qualifying results