Virtuosi’s Jack Doohan scored his first FIA Formula 2 pole of the season during a tight qualifying in Budapest.
The Australian set a 1m27.626s in the closing stages of the 30-minute session to score his fourth F2 pole – his last coming at Monza last year – and deny fellow Alpine Academy driver Victor Martins a third pole in a row.
Prema’s Frederik Vesti initially led the way with a 1m28.334s before improving further, with the arrival of light rain not enough to have an impact.
Martins soon moved up to second ahead of ART team-mate Theo Pourchaire, while Ayumu Iwasa was relegated three places to fifth behind Enzo Fittipaldi.
A crash for Romanek Stanek brought out the red flags after 10 minutes, with conditions improving when the session resumed.
Pourchaire lapped 0.001s faster than chief title rival Vesti to move to the top, but Vesti quickly responded with 1m27.767s lap to reclaim the advantage.
The pair were soon beaten by Martins, who set a 1m27.728s to take provisional pole, but Doohan then edged Martins by 0.052s.
Both Pourchaire and Martins set personal best first sectors on their final flying laps but could not improve, with Doohan deciding to abort an even quicker lap with pole already secured.
Vesti remained third ahead of Pourchaire, while Hitech GP’s Isack Hadjar improved to fifth.
Iwasa, who was fastest in Friday’s practice session, was sixth ahead of Prema’s Ollie Bearman and MP Motorsport duo Jehan Daruvala and Dennis Hauger.
Campos Racing’s Kush Maini finished qualifying in 10th to provisionally secure reversed-grid pole for Saturday’s sprint race.
Featured image credit: @formula2 official twitter
