Prema’s Ollie Bearman bounced back from a disastrous opening round to take pole position for Saturday’s Formula 2 feature race in Saudi Arabia
The Ferrari Academy member lapped 0.025 seconds quicker than Invicta Racing’s Kush Maini in qualifying, with DAMS driver Jak Crawford edging ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins to third.
DAMS’s Juan Manuel Correa was the first driver to post a representative lap time in the 30-minute session, but his effort of 1m43.847s was soon beaten by MP Motorsport’s free practice pacesetter Dennis Hauger before Bearman went fastest with a 1m43.207s.
Maini reduced Bearman’s advantage to 0.103s but was demoted to fourth approaching the 10-minute mark by Crawford and Correa. Moments later Hauger went quickest with a 1m42.946s, and Hitech GP’s Paul Aron improved into second ahead of Bearman while Invicta’s Gabriel Bortoleto climbed to fourth.
Hauger stayed ahead until Trident’s Roman Stanek lowered the pace to a 1m42.747 with less than six minutes remaining. Crawford briefly held second before being displaced by Hauger, who lapped 0.004s quicker than Stanek’s team-mate Richard Verschoor.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli then put Prema back on top with a 1m42.812s, but the Italian’s advantage only lasted a few seconds before Aron moved into first ahead of Martins. But Bearman then reclaimed top spot with a 1m42.217s which was good enough to end the session fastest, with Maini improving into second.
Campos Racing’s Pepe Marti moved into fourth behind Aron, but the pair were then edged by Crawford, VAR’s Enzo Fittipaldi and Antonelli, who improved on his previous best by over 0.2s
Martins then went quicker in the final moments to pip Fittipaldi to fourth by 0.023s, with Antonelli ending the session 0.010s ahead of Hauger in sixth. Isack Hadjar improved as the chequered flag fell to take eighth for Campos ahead of Verschoor, while Aron slipped to 10th but provisionally took reversed-grid pole for Friday’s sprint race.
Marti was 0.030s behind Aron in 11th, with Stanek 12th ahead of MP Motorsport’s Franco Colapinto, who hit the wall early on but was able to return to track. ART’s Zak O’Sullivan briefly held fourth in the closing stages but as others improved he fell back to 14th.
Rodin Motorsport’s points leader Zane Maloney appeared to suffer car issues during the session, with the team taking the engine cover off in the pitlane and the double-winner in Bahrain qualified a lowly 16th, one place behind Bortoleto. VAR’s Rafael Villagomez did not take part in qualifying following a crash in practice.
Qualifying result
| Position | Driver | Team | Time / gap |
| 1 | Ollie Bearman | Prema | 1m42.217s |
| 2 | Kush Maini | Invicta Racing | +0.025s |
| 3 | Jak Crawford | DAMS | +0.159s |
| 4 | Victor Martins | ART Grand Prix | +0.180s |
| 5 | Enzo Fittipaldi | Van Amersfoort Racing | +0.203s |
| 6 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Prema | +0.228s |
| 7 | Dennis Hauger | MP Motorsport | +0.238s |
| 8 | Isack Hadjar | Campos Racing | +0.296s |
| 9 | Richard Verschoor | Trident | +0.368s |
| 10 | Paul Aron | Hitech GP | +0.421s |
| 11 | Pepe Marti | Campos Racing | +0.451s |
| 12 | Roman Stanek | Trident | +0.455s |
| 13 | Franco Colapinto | MP Motorsport | +0.644s |
| 14 | Zak O’Sullivan | ART Grand Prix | +0.669s |
| 15 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Invicta Racing | +0.725s |
| 16 | Zane Maloney | Rodin Motorsport | +0.823s |
| 17 | Juan Manuel Correa | DAMS | +0.901s |
| 18 | Taylor Barnard | PHM Racing | +0.928s |
| 19 | Joshua Duerksen | PHM Racing | +1.327s |
| 20 | Ritomo Miyata | Rodin Motorsport | +1.560s |
| 21 | Amaury Cordeel | Hitech GP | +1.680s |
| 22 | Rafael Villagomez | Van Amersfoort Racing |
Featured image credit: Formula Motorsport Ltd
