Gabriel Bortoleto scored his second Formula 2 pole position of the season in qualifying at Imola, while several drivers were penalised for track limit infringements.
The Invicta Racing driver produced a late lap to deny Prema’s Ollie Bearman, who was further demoted to 16th at the end of the session after having his best lap deleted.
Bearman bounced back from a practice crash earlier in the day to set the early pace in the 30-minute session with a 1m28.218s before Campos Racing’s Isack Hadjar took over at the top.
Bortoleto then edged the Red Bull junior by 0.026 seconds, and after being demoted by Rodin Motorsport’s Zane Maloney the Brazilian responded with an improved effort to lead the way by 0.271s as the field headed for the pitlane for fresh tyres.
Trident’s Roman Stanek lowered the benchmark to a 1m27.467s in the closing stages, but was almost immediately beaten by Prema’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
Bearman then pipped his team-mate with a 1m27.111 before heading for the pitlane, and the Ferrari junior could only watch on as Bortoleto went 0.055s faster to seal pole for Sunday’s feature race with a 1m27.056s.
Hadjar moved into third ahead of Antonelli, who failed to improve further, and he was promoted a further place to second by Bearman’s track limits penalty moments after the session concluded.
Antonelli and ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins both suffered the same fate as Bearman and were demoted to 18th and 19th, the latter having also needed left-rear repairs during the session after going off the circuit.
Joshua Durksen ended up third for the rebranded AIX Racing team formerly known as PHM Racing, with Maloney and Stanek less than 0.1s behind.
Van Amersfoort Racing’s Enzo Fittipaldi was sixth ahead of MP Motorsport’s Dennis Hauger, while Pepe Marti recovered from an early spin at the Tamburello chicane to qualify eighth for Campos.
MP’s Franco Colapinto was another to go off track, nosing it into the barriers at Acque Minerali, but returned to track to qualify one place behind Trident’s Richard Verschoor in 10th and provisionally secure reversed-grid pole for Saturday’s sprint race.
Qualifying results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time/gap |
| 1 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Invicta Racing | 1m27.056s |
| 2 | Isack Hadjar | Campos Racing | +0.216s |
| 3 | Joshua Duerksen | AIX Racing | +0.328s |
| 4 | Zane Maloney | Rodin Motorsport | +0.372s |
| 5 | Roman Stanek | Trident | +0.411s |
| 6 | Enzo Fittipaldi | Van Amersfoort Racing | +0.683s |
| 7 | Dennis Hauger | MP Motorsport | +0.339s |
| 8 | Pepe Marti | Campos Racing | +0.746s |
| 9 | Richard Verschoor | Trident | +0.830s |
| 10 | Franco Colapinto | MP Motorsport | +0.898s |
| 11 | Paul Aron | Hitech GP | +0.955s |
| 12 | Ritomo Miyata | Rodin Motorsport | +0.994s |
| 13 | Kush Maini | Invicta Racing | +1.005s |
| 14 | Zak O’Sullivan | ART Grand Prix | +1.072s |
| 15 | Taylor Barnard | AIX Racing | +1.113s |
| 16 | Ollie Bearman | Prema | +1.162s |
| 17 | Amaury Cordeel | Hitech GP | +1.351s |
| 18 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Prema | +1.486s |
| 19 | Victor Martins | ART Grand Prix | +1.513s |
| 20 | Rafael Villagomez | Van Amersfoort Racing | +1.904s |
| 21 | Juan Manuel Correa | DAMS | +4.575s |
| 22 | Jak Crawford | DAMS | +14.043s |
Featured image credit: Formula Motorsport Ltd
