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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