Oscar Piastri took his third pole position in a row in FIA Formula 2 qualifying at the Sochi Autodrome.
The Prema driver put in a late flier to top the session and secure pole for Sunday’s feature race, and also extended his championship lead to 19 points over Virtuosi’s Guanyu Zhou, who was fourth quickest.
Zhou pipped Piastri the fastest time at the halfway stage, the pair both bettering Ralph Boschung’s early benchmark.
Piastri improved on his rival’s effort by 0.030s on his second tyre run before Jehan Daruvula went even faster for Carlin.
But on his next lap, Piastri found almost another 0.2s to regain top spot ahead of Daruvala, while ART’s Theo Pourchaire moved up to third with his final effort ahead of Zhou, who was unable to improve on his second run.
Boschung ended up fifth for Campos Racing, while HWA’s Jake Hughes also impressed with the sixth quickest time in only his second appearance of the season.
Prema’s Robert Shwartzman was seventh ahead of Hitech duo Liam Lawson and Juri Vips.
Carlin’s Dan Ticktum will start at the front for Saturday’s opening sprint race after setting the 10th fastest time.
Qualifying result
| 1 | Oscar Piastri | Prema | 1m47.465s |
| 2 | Jehan Daruvala | Carlin | +0.188s |
| 3 | Theo Pourchaire | ART | +0.426s |
| 4 | Guanyu Zhou | Virtuosi | +0.529s |
| 5 | Ralph Boschung | Campos | +0.559s |
| 6 | Jake Hughes | HWA | +0.608s |
| 7 | Robert Shwartzman | Prema | +0.633s |
| 8 | Liam Lawson | Hitech | +0.664s |
| 9 | Juri Vips | Hitech | +0.674s |
| 10 | Dan Ticktum | Carlin | +0.706s |
| 11 | Marcus Armstrong | DAMS | +0.725s |
| 12 | Christian Lundgaard | ART | +0.790s |
| 13 | Felipe Drugovich | Virtuosi | +0.821s |
| 14 | David Beckmann | Campos | +0.963s |
| 15 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | +1.122s |
| 16 | Bent Viscaal | Trident | +1.197s |
| 17 | Lirim Zendeli | MP Motorsport | +1.320s |
| 18 | Roy Nissany | DAMS | +1.524s |
| 19 | Guilherme Samaia | Charouz | +1.761s |
| 20 | Marino Sato | Trident | +1.874s |
| 21 | Enzo Fittipaldi | Charouz | +2.000s |
| 22 | Alessio Deledda | HWA | +2.924s |
Featured image credit: @formula2 official twitter
