Home Featured Vips takes pole in wet at Imola in delayed F2 qualifying

Vips takes pole in wet at Imola in delayed F2 qualifying

by Bethonie Waring

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Juri Vips took pole position in fading light at Imola for the Formula 2 feature race, of Ayumu Iwasa and Jack Doohan.

Poor weather conditions and multiple red flags had delayed F2’s qualifying at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, and the track was still wet when the session did get underway in the evening.

Campos Racing’s free practice pacesetter Ralph Boschung was quickest after the opening laps, but was knocked off the top spot by Van Amersfoort Racing rookie Jake Hughes and then Hitech GP’s Vips.

A brief red flag, brought out by Boschung’s team-mate Olli Caldwell running into the gravel, disrupted running shortly before most of the field were set to come into the pits at the end of their first runs.

As the conditions then improved, laptimes tumbled in the second half of qualifying.

Boschung again appeared at the front of the order, but Vips was soon back on top with a 1m40.221s lap. Though others found improvements, none could beat his time.

Fellow Red Bull junior Iwasa came close for DAMS, jumping up the order in the closing stages and ending the day with a laptime just 0.157 seconds slower.

A late improvement from Doohan put the Virtuosi Racing driver in third, ahead of Boschung and Prema’s Dennis Hauger.

Iwasa’s team-mate Roy Nissany surprised to qualify sixth, ahead of Theo Pourchare and Jehan Daruvala who span late on but was able to get going under his own power. Marcus Armstrong and Logan Sargeant completed the top 10.

It was a difficult qualifying for championship leader Felipe Drugovich. He was inside the top five at the mid-point of the session but couldn’t keep up with the rate of improvements in the second half and qualified 12th, one position ahead of MP Motorsport team-mate Clement Novalak.

Qualifying results
Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Juri Vips Hitech GP 1m40.221s 14
2 Ayumu Iwasa DAMS 1m40.378s +0.167s 14
3 Jack Doohan Virtuosi 1m40.431s +0.210s 15
4 Ralph Boschung Campos Racing 1m40.496s +0.275s 13
5 Dennis Hauger Prema 1m40.572s +0.351s 13
6 Roy Nissany DAMS 1m40.621s +0.400s 14
7 Theo Pourchaire ART Grand Prix 1m40.862s +0.641s 14
8 Jehan Daruvala Prema 1m40.886s +0.665s 13
9 Marcus Armstrong Hitech GP 1m41.004s +0.783s 15
10 Logan Sargeant Carlin 1m41.062s +0.841s 14
11 David Beckmann Charouz Racing System 1m41.129s +0.908s 13
12 Felipe Drugovich MP Motorsport 1m41.131s +0.910s 14
13 Clement Novalak MP Motorsport 1m41.173s +0.952s 14
14 Liam Lawson Carlin 1m41.199s +0.978s 14
15 Enzo Fittipaldi Charouz Racing System 1m41.235s +1.014s 13
16 Frederik Vesti ART Grand Prix 1m41.434s +1.213s 11
17 Jake Hughes Van Amersfoort Racing 1m41.520s +1.299s 12
18 Amaury Cordeel Van Amersfoort Racing 1m41.592s +1.371s 14
19 Richard Verschoor Trident 1m42.144s +1.923s 11
20 Calan Williams Trident 1m42.498s +2.277s 12
21 Olli Caldwell Campos Racing 1m42.954s +2.733s 4
22 Marino Sato Virtuosi 1m43.311s +3.090s 15