Callum Ilott reduced the gap to Formula 2 championship leader Mick Schumacher to 18 points after taking his fifth pole position of the year in Bahrain.
In a session interrupted by two red flags, Ilott’s title rivals struggled, with Schumacher only managing the 10th fastest time, while Yuki Tsunoda ended up last after spinning out early in the session.
Ilott set his pole-winning time of 1m41.479s on his first run in the 30-minute session, displacing previous pacesetter Marcus Armstrong by over half a second.
Moments later the red flags were brought out for Tsunoda, who suffered a blow to both his title hopes and chances of an Alpha Tauri Formula 1 drive next year. The Honda protege had a snap of oversteer in turn 12 before bouncing over the kerbs and spinning and stalling at the next corner.
When the session resumed, track conditions appeared less favourable due to the wind increasing, with nobody coming close to challenging Ilott’s time. The session came to an end with less than two minutes remaining after the red flags were brought out for a second time when MP Motorsport’s Guiliano Alesi ground to a smokey halt at the side of the circuit.
Ilott scored four points for pole to strengthen his title hopes.
Alesi’s team-mate Felipe Drugovich will start from the front row after a lap shortly after the first red flag was good enough for second spot. Despite setting the fastest overall final sector time on his final run, Drugovich was unable to improve further.
Dan Ticktum was third fastest for DAMS, his best time also set on his first run, ahead of Armstrong. Virtuosi’s Guanyu Zhou, who took his maiden F2 win at the last race, was fifth fastest while Alesi qualified an impressive sixth, despite his late drama.
Outside title contender Nikita Mazepin was seventh for Hitech ahead of Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala and ART’s Christian Lundgaard, who is fourth in the championship.
But it was a difficult session for Mick Schumacher. His Prema car needed a set-up change at the front in between runs, but he could only manage the tenth fastest time on his final run. Team-mate Robert Shwartzman had another disappointing qualifying, ending up in 14th.
2020 FIA Formula 3 runner-up Theo Pourchaire was 16th on his F2 debut for HWA Racelab, after taking the place of F3 rival Jake Hughes in the car this weekend. Sean Gelael was 18th for DAMS on his F2 return after missing four rounds with a broken vertebrae.
Qualifying result
| 1 | Callum Ilott | Virtuosi | 1m41.479s |
| 2 | Felipe Drugovich | MP Motorsport | +0.391s |
| 3 | Dan Ticktum | DAMS | +0.568s |
| 4 | Marcus Armstrong | ART | +0.573s |
| 5 | Guanyu Zhou | Virtuosi | +0.586s |
| 6 | Giuliano Alesi | MP Motorsport | +0.595s |
| 7 | Nikita Mazepin | Hitech | +0.660s |
| 8 | Jehan Daruvala | Carlin | +0.712s |
| 9 | Christian Lundgaard | ART | +0.780s |
| 10 | Mick Schumacher | Prema | +0.804s |
| 11 | Louis Deletraz | Charouz | +0.837s |
| 12 | Roy Nissany | Trident | +0.859s |
| 13 | Pedro Piquet | Charouz | +1.002s |
| 14 | Robert Shwartzman | Prema | +1.175s |
| 15 | Jack Aitken | Campos | +1.369s |
| 16 | Theo Pourchaire | HWA | +1.488s |
| 17 | Marino Sato | Trident | +1.691s |
| 18 | Sean Gelael | DAMS | +1.712s |
| 19 | Guilherme Samaia | Campos | +1.807s |
| 20 | Luca Ghiotto | Hitech | +1.887s |
| 21 | Artem Markelov | HWA | +1.2.540s |
| 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | Carlin | +1.15.569s |
Featured image credit: fiaformula2.com
