Trident’s Richard Verschoor edged Andrea Kimi Antonelli in Formula 2 qualifying in Baku to score his second pole position of the season
Verschoor was the quickest driver in the first part of the 30-minute session and, on his second set of tyres, the Dutchman edged Prema’s Antonelli by just 0.017 seconds to secure his place at the front of the grid for Sunday’s feature race.
Points leader Isack Hadjar was the first driver to post a representative lap time, but the Campos Racing driver was soon shuffled down the order as others went quicker.
Hadjar’s closest title rival Gabriel Bortoleto briefly led as well before being displaced by his Invicta Racing team-mate Kush Maini, and the pair were then separated by Rodin Motorsport’s championship contender Zane Maloney.
Verschoor soon went fastest with a 1m56.023s to lead Martins and Antonelli before improving the pace further to 1m55.655. Martins reduced the deficit to 0.079s, and Antonelli remained third despite also improving.
The red flags were brought out in bizarre circumstances in the final five minutes as drivers commenced their second runs on new tyres.
Hadjar locked up both of his front tyres into turn one and nosed his cars into the barriers at the end of the escape road and, moments later, his team-mate Pepe Marti did the same, leaving both Campos cars stranded next to each other.
Maini reclaimed first place once the session resumed with a 1m55.174s, before being edged by Maloney’s 1m55.128. Antonelli then vaulted his way to the top by over 0.2s but it was not enough to deny Verschoor, who snatched pole with a 1m54.857s.
Antonelli held on to second while Martins improved to displace Maloney from third. Bortoleto qualified one place behind Maini in sixth while AIX Racing’s Joshua Duerksen was seventh.
FIA F3 runner-up Gabriele Mini was eighth ahead of DAMS’ Jak Crawford on his F2 debut for Prema, the Italian replacing Ollie Bearman who is racing in F1 for Haas this weekend.
Fellow debutants Christian Mansell (Trident) and Luke Browning (DAMS) – both also graduating from F3, were 10th and 11th, with Mansell due to line up from reversed-grid pole in his first F2 start in Saturday’s sprint race.
Hitech GP’s Paul Aron sat as high as third in the closing stages but was eventually shuffled back to 12th, while his title rival Hadjar slipped back to 15th as he watched on from the sidelines.
Featured image credit: Formula Motorsport Ltd
