Invicta’s Gabriel Bortoleto managed to secure pole position during the Formula 2 qualifying session on Imola, who was heavily affected by several amount of lap times deleted from track limits.
Formula 2 returned to Imola after a 2-year hiatus and after two months since the last round of the Championship in Melbourne, with only the Barcelona in-season testing as a recent representative mileage for the F2 grid.
Championship leader Zane Maloney was the first benchmark during the maiden run, but Prema prospect Oliver Bearman and Campos driver Isack Hadjar quickly beat his time.
Campos driver Pepe Marti summoned the first yellow flag of the session following a big moment into the Variante Tamburello. Fortunately for him, he was able to carry on avoiding a major crash.
McLaren junior Gabriel Bortoleto briefly led the way after all the drivers completed their first run, ahead of Hadjar and Durksen.
Nonetheless, Maloney struck back on his second run and recovered the top spot of the standings.
AIX duo Durksen and Taylor Barnard went up to P4 and P5 during their first runs followed by Championship contender Paul Aron.
Right after, Franco Colapinto went out into Acque Minerali and managed to avoid a big crash into the barriers.
Bortoleto found his way to the top again, setting a benchmark time of 1:27:739 with 17 minutes remaining in the qualifying session.
All the drivers went straight into the pitlane to change their supersoft tyres to a new set.
At the end of the first stint, Invicta set the pace with Bortoleto, followed by Maloney and Hadjar.
AIX remained in fourth and fifth followed by Aron, Bearman, Maini, Cordeel, and Verschoor who completed the top 10.
Mercedes highly anticipated prospect Andrea Kimi Antonelli was setting a competitive time, but got his lap deleted due to track limits and went into the pits.
Dennis Hauger led the pack back on track for the second and definitive stint, fitted with fresh supersoft tyres.
Jack Crawford was dealing with car issues for the entirety of the session, failing to set a time during the first stint.
ART was also managing an issue in Victor Martin’s car, following a run-off into the gravel trap that affected his car.
With six minutes to go, Oliver Bearman went into the provisional pole with a 1:27:111, followed by Hadjar and teammate Antonelli in second and third respectively.
It’s significant to mention that Bearman was on the Haas F1 car earlier in the day for FP1 as part of his development program.
When nobody seemed to improve during the second run, Gabriele Bortoleto found the time to clinch pole position going half a tenth faster than Bearman.
The chequered flag came out with the Brazilian taking pole, followed by Bearman and Hadjar, who completed the top three.
Antonelli finished in fourth. Durksen finished in fifth with Championship Leader Maloney in sixth.
Stanek, Aron, and Colapinto completed the top 9 with Enzo Fitipaldi in 10th and therefore on the reverse grid pole in the Sprint race tomorrow.
Despite a great result for Prema, both their drivers were dropped post-session into P16 and P18 for track limits in Turns 17-18
Nonetheless, they were not the only ones, as a lot of drivers saw their times being deleted right after the session came to an end.
Colapinto, Aron, Maini, Barnard, Crawford, Cordeen, Correa, and Villagomez all had their times deleted.
The top 10 after all the laps got deleted: Bortoleto, Hadjar, Durksen, Maloney, Stanke, Fittipaldi, Hauger, Marti, Verschoor, and Colapinto in the reverse grid pole.
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