Hitech GP’s Paul Aron took his second Formula 2 pole position of the season in Friday’s qualifying at the Hungaroring
Aron denied Van Amersfoort Racing’s Enzo Fittipaldi by 0.068 seconds following a mid-session stoppage, with points leader Isack Hadjar qualifying third for Campos Racing.
Jak Crawford posted an early benchmark of 1m31.921s, but the DAMS driver was quickly shuffled down the order as free practice pacestter Zane Maloney went fastest for Rodin Motorsport ahead of Victor Martins and Franco Colapinto.
Invicta Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto lowered the pace to a 1m30.269s to hold top spot by 0.246 seconds when the red flags were shown 11 minutes into the session after Campos driver Pepe Marti repeated his error from practice by spinning out at turn 11. Hadjar sat fifth, two places ahead of chief title rival Aron who improved on his laptime moments before the stoppage.
Fittipaldi took over first place with a 1m30.096s once the action resumed, while Maloney fractionally improved but remained third before being demoted by MP Motorsport’s Dennis Hauger and Prema’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
Aron set a 1m30.028s to lead Fittipaldi, and he set a purple middle sector on his final effort but did not go quicker on completing the lap. Martins moved up to third but then edged by Hadjar, and Bortoleto then pipped the Alpine F1 junior to fourth by 0.010s.
Hauger and Antonelli slipped back to sixth and seventh ahead of Maloney, with Invicta’s Kush Maini ninth ahead of Trident’s Richard Verschoor who provisionally took reversed-grid pole for the sprint race. Prema’s Ollie Bearman struggled to 14th, while Crawford ended up 22nd after his second run was hampered by a deleted lap for exceeding track limits and a further mistake at turn 11.
Featured image credit: Formula Motorsport Ltd
