Points leader Paul Aron scored his maiden Formula 2 pole position while his closest championship rivals struggled in qualifying at the Circuit de Catalunya
In a very close 30-minute session, the Hitech GP driver edged DAMS’ Jack Crawford by just 0.002 seconds to seal pole for Sunday’s feature race, with Williams F1 Academy member Franco Colapinto only 0.004s further adrift in third and Alpine junior Gabriel Bortoleto within 0.055s of the pace in fourth.
Campos Racing’s Isack Hadjar, who trails Aron by two points in the standings, held provisional pole at the halfway stage but he failed to improve during a difficult second run and slipped to 11th, and fellow title contender Zane Maloney could only qualify 17th for Rodin Motorsport.
The session was red-flagged before seven minutes had elapsed after AIX Racing’s Taylor Barnard went off into the barriers at turn nine, with Aron heading the times ahead of MP Motorsport duo Dennis Hauger and Franco Colapinto.
Following a short delay, some of those with a lap time on the board completed an out-lap before returning to the pitlane. Red Bull junior Hadjar, one of nine drivers to have not posted a time before the red-flag period, went fastest on his first flying lap. Prema’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli also moved ahead of Aron into second, and Maloney took fourth with his first effort.
The track was empty for several minutes before drivers returned to track for their second tyre runs and Aron, who also topped Friday’s free practice, improved to a 1m24.766s which was good enough to end the session fastest. Rodin’s Ritomo Miyata briefly moved into second ahead of AIX’s Joshua Duerksen before the pair were beaten by Colapinto and Bortoleto, but Crawford then improved to grab a front-row spot for the feature race.
Antonelli set a lap within 0.105s of the pace on his final run to take fifth, demoting Miyata and Duerksen to sixth and seventh ahead of DAMS driver Juan Manuel Correa. Invicta’s Kush Maini is set to start from reversed-grid pole in Saturday’s sprint race ahead ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins after ending qualifying in 10th.
Hadjar missed out on sprint race pole by 0.006s, having failed to improve on his second run after struggling to get his tyres into the operating window, with Maloney also not bettering his opening effort and tumbling down the order. Prema’s Ollie Bearman was another to struggle, the Ferrari Academy driver posting the 18th quickest time on his first run and could only improve to 15th on his second set of tyres.
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time / Gap |
| 1 | Paul Aron | Hitech GP | 1m24.766s |
| 2 | Jak Crawford | DAMS | +0.002s |
| 3 | Franco Colapinto | MP Motorsport | +0.006s |
| 4 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Invicta Racing | +0.055s |
| 5 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Prema | +0.105s |
| 6 | Ritomo Miyata | Rodin Motorsport | +0.182s |
| 7 | Joshua Duerksen | AIX Racing | +0.222s |
| 8 | Juan Manuel Correa | DAMS | +0.246s |
| 9 | Victor Martins | ART Grand Prix | +0.405s |
| 10 | Kush Maini | Invicta Racing | +0.433s |
| 11 | Isack Hadjar | Campos Racing | +0.439s |
| 12 | Zak O’Sullivan | ART Grand Prix | +0.459s |
| 13 | Dennis Hauger | MP Motorsport | +0.483s |
| 14 | Pepe Marti | Campos Racing | +0.519s |
| 15 | Ollie Bearman | Prema | +0.555s |
| 16 | Enzo Fittipaldi | Van Amersfoort Racing | +0.576s |
| 17 | Zane Maloney | Rodin Motorsport | +0.578s |
| 18 | Amaury Cordeel | Hitech GP | +0.646s |
| 19 | Richard Verschoor | Trident | +0.804s |
| 20 | Rafael Villagomez | Van Amersfoort Racing | +1.019s |
| 21 | Roman Stanek | Trident | +1.449s |
| 22 | Taylor Barnard | AIX Racing | +18.701s |
Featured image credit: Formula Motorsport Ltd
