Piastri on Silverstone F2 pole, team-mate Shwartzman causes red flag

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Prema’s Oscar Piastri took his maiden Formula 2 pole in a qualifying session shortened by a red flag caused by team-mate Robert Shwartzman spinning.

This pole position, Piastri’s first since his 2019 Formula Renault Eurocup title charge, puts him one point shy of the championship lead.

Virtuosi Racing’s Felipe Drugovich topped the times in the early stages of qualifying with a lap that already bettered the free practice benchmark set by Carlin’s Dan Ticktum.

Some drivers improved their laptimes on their second effort with the same tyres, and Piastri was the first driver to lap sub-1m40s on his first run. This put him at the top of the timesheet mid-session, and was eventually good enough for pole.

Ticktum was second after the first runs, followed by Drugovich, who bettered again his fastest time before heading to the pits for a new set of medium tyres, which are the softest compound available this weekend.

After a free practice crash and a shy initial effort, ART Grand Prix’s Theo Pourchaire was able to bounce back and took fifth in the grid with an early start to his his second run on a new set of tyres.

Times then started to drop with five minutes to go, with Alpine junior Guanyu Zhou going second fastest and two tenths off Piastri’s. However, his lap might be cancelled as he crossed the line just when the red flag that ended the session came out.

Sneaking in their improvements before Shwartzman’s spin and stall at Stowe were MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor, who qualified third on a track where his team took pole last year and therefore demoted Ticktum to fourth, and DAMS’ Roy Nissany who went eighth fastest behind Drugovich and Shwartzman.

Hitech GP’s Juri Vips and ART GP’s Christian Lundgaard completed the top 10, meaning unless there are any post-qualifying session penalties it will be Lundgaard who starts Saturday morning’s sprint race from reversed grid pole.

Qualifying results