Yuki Tsunoda kept his Formula 2 title hopes alive after taking pole position in Bahrain, but a crash left points leader Mick Schumacher down in 18th and brought an early end to qualifying.
After topping the earlier free practice session for Carlin on the Bahrain ‘outer-loop’ circuit, Tsunoda continued his form into the 30-minute qualifying session, setting a time of 1m02.676s on his first run which was good enough to pole after two red flag periods disrupted drivers’ second runs.
With four points for pole, Honda protege Tsunoda moves up to fourth in the championship, the minimum position he need to finish in if he is to obtain the superlicence points to be able to race in Formula 1 for Alpha Tauri next season.
Schumacher, who is moving to F1 with Haas in 2021, found himself down in 17th after his first run. A spin for Luca Ghiotto caused a red flag period with four minutes of the session remaining, resulting in a mad scramble on a busy track when action resumed.
As he tried to improve his time in the final moments of the session, Schumacher collided with Trident’s Roy Nissany, who was briefly launched over the back of the Prema. Both cars spun to a halt, the drivers uninjured, with red flags bringing in an end to qualifying.
After struggling in practice, Virtuosi’s Callum Ilott had a difficult qualifying as he began his attempt to overhaul a 14-point deficit to Schumacher to the title race this weekend, lining up ninth for Saturday’s feature race, despite briefly sitting third fastest early on.
Nikita Mazepin, also stepping up to F1 with Haas next season, qualified second for Hitech despite holding provisional pole before Tsunoda beat his time by just over one tenth of a second. Sitting third in the championship, Mazepin is still in with a chance of taking the crown.
Jehan Daruvala underlined Carlin’s strong pace by setting the third fastest time, a week after scoring his first F2 podium, with Robert Shwartzman enjoying one of his strongest qualifying performances of the season with fourth for Prema. Last week’s feature race winner Felipe Drugovich will line up fifth for MP Motorsport, ahead of ART’s Christian Lundgaard, another the top the timesheets in the opening minutes of qualifying.
Artem Markelov qualified a strong seventh for HWA, ahead of DAMS driver Dan Ticktum, while Charouz racer Louis Deletraz will start alongside Ilott from tenth. Ralph Boschung, making his first F2 appearance of the season in place of Williams F1 debutant Jack Aitken, was 20th for Campos.
Qualifying result
| 1 | Yuki Tsunoda | Carlin | 1m02.676s |
| 2 | Nikita Mazepin | Hitech | +0.122s |
| 3 | Jehan Daruvala | Carlin | +0.131s |
| 4 | Robert Shwartzman | Prema | +0.146s |
| 5 | Felipe Drugovich | MP Motorsport | +0.165s |
| 6 | Christian Lundgaard | ART | +0.173s |
| 7 | Artem Markelov | HWA | +0.271s |
| 8 | Dan Ticktum | DAMS | +0.278s |
| 9 | Callum Ilott | Virtuosi | +0.338s |
| 10 | Louis Deletraz | Charouz | +0.386s |
| 11 | Guanyu Zhou | Virtuosi | +0.399s |
| 12 | Marino Sato | Trident | +0.440s |
| 13 | Pedro Piquet | Charouz | +0.471s |
| 14 | Luca Ghiotto | Hitech GP | +0.490s |
| 15 | Marcus Armstrong | ART | +0.493s |
| 16 | Giuliano Alesi | MP Motorsport | +0.518s |
| 17 | Theo Pourchaire | HWA | +0.552s |
| 18 | Mick Schumacher | Prema | +0.594s |
| 19 | Roy Nissany | Trident | +0.641s |
| 20 | Ralph Boschung | Campos | +0.727s |
| 21 | Guilherme Samaia | Campos | +0.876s |
| 22 | Sean Gelael | DAMS | +1.062s |
