Nyck de Vries scores first F2 pole at Spa

Photo: Joe Portlock / FIA Formula 2

Nyck de Vries made the most of an enforced alternate strategy to claim his maiden Formula 2 pole position at Spa-Francorchamps, four tenths of a second ahead of George Russell.

Practice pace-setter de Vries went to the top of the times early in the session but then had that lap-time deleted for exceeding track limits at Raidillon.

That meant that with the drivers’ first runs complete, Prema’s de Vries sat at the bottom of the times without a competitive time.

Points leader Russell had his warm-up lap removed for the same reason as de Vries, but the ART man subsequently posted a 1m56.507s to top the times, 0.216s ahead of main rival Lando Norris.

De Vries went back out on track in the middle of the session in order to post a time, and used the clear circuit to register a 1m56.054, putting him nearly half a second ahead of Russell.

The rest of the drivers attempted to beat that time in the closing minutes of the session and while Russell came closest, he was still 0.403s adrift of de Vries.

Norris was shuffled back to fifth late on by Carlin team-mate Sergio Sette Camara and Campos driver Luca Ghiotto, and then came to a halt on track before he could return to the pit lane.

Title outsider Alex Albon took sixth ahead of Antonio Fuoco, and an improved Nirei Fukuzumi, with Louis Deletraz and Artem Markelov rounding out the top 10.

Debutant Dorian Boccolacci wound up 20th and last, one place behind his fellow mid-season GP3 graduate Alessio Lorandi.

Qualifying results