Jack Doohan starred on his Virtuosi debut by topping the first qualifying session of the FIA Formula 2 season on the Sakhir circuit.
The Australian lapped 0.141 seconds faster than ART’s Theo Pourchaire, who will start alongside him in Sunday’s feature race after pipping Hitech GP’s Juri Vips to second with a late flier.
Felipe Drugovich will start from the front on his return to MP Motorsport in Saturday’s season-opening sprint race, having set the 10th fastest time, with the top-10 positions reversed in forming the grid.
The 30-minute session was briefly halted in the opening seconds after Red Bull junior Ayuma Iwasa, who was second fastest in free practice on his series debut, spun his DAMS machine into the gravel on his out-lap.
When the action resumed, it was Jake Hughes who set the pace for series newcomers Van Amersfoort Racing ahead of Alpine junior Doohan and Campos Racing’s Ralph Boschung.
Drugovich briefly moved to the top after lowering Hughes’s benchmark by over 0.2s, before the Briton went even faster to regain the advantage.
Doohan then put in a blistering lap to go fastest by more than half a second, as drivers pitted for fresh tyres.
Pourchaire used his new tyres to get within 0.087s of Doohan, but his effort was deleted for exceeding track limits at turn four. Vips then moved into second, albeit over 0.2s shy of the best time, before Pourchaire recorded a clean lap to cement second spot.
Despite not improving further, Doohan held on to pole position ahead of the Frenchman, with rookie Logan Sargeant lapping 0.005s slower than Vips in fourth for Carlin.
F2 veteran Ralph Boschung was a solid fifth fastest for Campos Racing, while Carlin’s Liam Lawson made a late improvement to move up from 16th to sixth.
Jehan Daruvala also snatched seventh of his final lap for defending champions Prema, while Hughes ended up eighth, having been unable to improve on his earlier session-topping time.
Richard Verschoor qualified ninth for Trident to secure a front-row spot alongside Drugovich for the sprint race.
Reigning FIA Formula 3 champion Denis Hauger struggled the 15th fastest time for Prema, and is under investigation for near-miss with Vips when attempting to drive into the pits early in the session.
Mercedes junior Frederick Vesti was another to have a lap deleted for going off-track at turn four, and ended up 19th fastest for ART.
Qualifying results
1 Jack Doohan Virtuosi Racing 1m40.542s
2 Théo Pourchaire ART Grand Prix 0.141s
3 Jüri Vips Hitech Grand Prix 0.213s
4 Logan Sargeant Carlin 0.218s
5 Ralph Boschung Campos Racing 0.458s
6 Liam Lawson Carlin 0.558s
7 Jehan Daruvala Prema Racing 0.573s
8 Jake Hughes Van Amersfoort Racing 0.579s
9 Richard Verschoor Trident 0.636s
10 Felipe Drugovich MP Motorsport 0.668s
11 Roy Nissany DAMS 0.676s
12 Calan Williams Trident 0.771s
13 Marcus Armstrong Hitech Grand Prix 0.812s
14 Marino Sato Virtuosi Racing 0.832s
15 Dennis Hauger Prema Racing 0.967s
16 Enzo Fittipaldi Charouz Racing System 0.987s
17 Oliver Olli Caldwell Campos Racing 1.21s
18 Clément Novalak MP Motorsport 1.323s
19 Frederik Vesti ART Grand Prix 1.541s
20 Cem Bölükbasi Charouz Racing System 1.547s
21 Amaury Cordeel Van Amersfoort Racing 2.338s
22 Ayumu Iwasa DAMS no time
Featured image credit: @formula2 official twitter
