Invicta Virtuosi Racing’s Jack Doohan topped the final Formula 2 qualifying session of the year in Abu Dhabi, whilst championship leader Theo Pourchaire struggled to 14th.
Doohan’s time of 1:35.567s adds two points to his championship tally and will see him start Sunday’s Feature from Pole Position and tomorrow’s Sprint from 10th.
Pourchaire’s ART Grand Prix teammate Victor Martins set the second-fastest time of 1:35.791s, with Kush Maini third courtesy of a 1:35.976s lap time for Campos Racing.
Rodin Carlin’s Zane Maloney set the fourth fastest time with fellow Red Bull Junior driver Ayumu Iwasa fifth for the DAMS outfit, having flirted with provisional pole earlier on in the session.
Sixth went to Dennis Hauger of MP Motorsport with Van Amersfoort Racings Richard Verschoor in seventh and Hitech’s Isaxk Hadjar in eighth.
Crucially, championship contender Frederik Vesti set the ninth fastest time, meaning his Prema will lineup on the front row for the Sprint Race alongside Enzo Fittipaldi, who secured Reverse Pole for the Sprint by setting the 10th fastest time in qualifying for Rodin Carlin.
Linning up on the sixth row of the grid for both the Sprint and Feature Race will be Juan Manuel Correa and Roy Nissany, who set the 11th and 12th fastest times in qualifying and the seventh row will be occupied by Arthur Leclerc and championship leader Pourchaire, with his 25 point margin over Vesti in jeopardy of being cut significantly by Vesti in the Sprint race thank to a lowly 14th grid slot.
Roman Stanek (15th) and Ralph Boschung (17th) occupy the eighth row with Oliver Bearman – who struggled with track limits and exchanges close to the walls throughout the session – and Amaury Cordeel setting the 18th and 19th fastest times in qualifying respectively.
Jak Crawford was next in the order in 20th, ahead of Williams junior Franco Colapinto, who has stepped up to F2 in Abu Dhabi after completing his Formula 3 campaign at Monza back in early September.
Finally, the final two places in qualifying came courtesy of Paul Aron and Joshua Mason.
Two and a half seconds covered the 22-car field in qualifying, with just a second covering the top 18 drivers.
The F2 Sprint Race will get underway at 16:20 local time tomorrow (12:20 GMT).
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