Formula 2: Fornaroli claimed his second pole of the season

Formula 2: Fornaroli claimed his second pole of the season

      For Formula 2, it has become a familiar sight to see no clear leader in the drivers’ standings, with only a few points separating the top five drivers. Since two bonus points are awarded for pole position and the difference between Alex Dunn, the leader of the junior series, and Richard Verschoor is just three points, it was definitely worth fighting for pole in qualifying.

      However, neither of them became the main protagonists of today’s session that determined the starting order for the weekend’s feature race.

      The first more or less convincing time was set by Leonardo Fornaroli, Invicta Racing’s driver, but he was beaten by just a thousandth of a second by the experienced Victor Martins—one of the season's main underdogs, who hopes to turn the tide at every round, only to be thwarted each time by “force majeure” circumstances.

      On his next attempt, Fornaroli went even quicker, posting a lap of 1:15.574, while Joshua Duerksen moved up to second place. Martins did not improve his time and found himself in third, and among the leading group, Verschoor was best—though only in sixth position. Something wasn’t working for Alex Dunn and his Rodin Motorsport team: after the first half of the session, he was languishing in the lower half of the standings, specifically in a distant 18th place.

      With less than 12 minutes to go, the drivers returned to the track on fresh sets of tires. Meanwhile, Jack Crawford and his DAMS team faced an investigation for an unsafe release from the pit lane, but the stewards planned to look into the incident after the session.

      Verschoor made a decisive push for pole and seized the top spot, but his time was soon beaten by Martins, who clocked a 1:15.243—already a very strong claim for pole. In his final attempt, the Dutch MP Motorsport driver went all-in, but as often happens when you push to the limits, the risks are high: Richard made at least three serious mistakes on his lap, enough for his time to be deleted.

      Fornaroli, on the other hand, did everything right, was precise, and his attempt was crowned with the best time of the day: 1:15.229! For the Italian driver, this is a second pole in his debut Formula 2 season, although it remains to be seen whether he can keep the lead when starting from the most favorable position in Sunday’s feature race.

      Before the session, Verschoor had said that pole position is nice, of course, but the Red Bull Ring doesn’t pose any major overtaking challenges, so with sufficient aggression you can fight for victory even when starting from deeper in the pack.

      To what extent he can do that will become clear during Saturday’s sprint, which he will start from seventh position since the junior series uses a partially reversed grid. On pole for the short race is Jon Bennett, the British Van Amersfoort Racing rookie, who finished today’s qualifying in tenth position.

      Qualifying Results

      Driver

       Team

       Time

       Gap

       Laps

      1. L. Fornaroli

       Invicta Racing

       1:15.229

       -

       16

      2. V. Martins

       ART Grand Prix

       1:15.243

       +0.014

       16

      3. R. Verschoor

       MP Motorsport

       1:15.253

       +0.024

       16

      4. G. Mini

       Prema

       1:15.400

       +0.171

       14

      5. A. Cordeel

       Rodin Motorsport

       1:15.417

       +0.188

       16

      6. R. Stanek

       Invicta Racing

       1:15.431

       +0.202

       16

      7. A. Dunn

       Rodin Motorsport

       1:15.443

       +0.214

       16

      8. J. Duerksen

       AIX Racing

       1:15.480

       +0.251

       16

      9. H. Martí

       Campos Racing

       1:15.487

       +0.258

       15

      10. J. Bennett

       Van Amersfoort Racing

       1:15.525

       +0.296

       16

      11. S. Montoya

       Prema

       1:15.527

       +0.298

       14

      12. A. Lindblad

       Campos Racing

       1:15.546

       +0.317

       15

      13. R. Miyata

       Rodin Motorsport

       1:15.574

       +0.345

       16

      14. S. Megatounif

       Trident

       1:15.651

       +0.422

       15

      15. J. Crawford

       DAMS

       1:15.757

       +0.528

       15

      16. O. Goethe

       MP Motorsport

       1:15.781

       +0.552

       17

      17. L. Browning

       Hitech GP

       1:15.801

       +0.572

       15

      18. K. Maini

       DAMS

       1:15.878

       +0.649

       15

      19. M. Esterson

       Trident

       1:16.012

       +0.783

       15

      20. R. Villagomez

       Van Amersfoort Racing

       1:16.037

       +0.808

       16

      21. D. Beganovic

       Hitech GP

       1:16.090

       +0.861

       15

      22. K. Shields

       AIX Racing

       1:16.555

       +1.326

       15

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