Hitech driver Dino Beganovic claimed his first Formula 2 pole position and will lead the grid for the Feature Race in Imola.
The Swedish-Bosnian racing driver snuck in with a fastest lap before the red flag was brought out and ended the qualifying session prematurely.
Sebastian Montoya qualified in second place for Prema Racing with Victor Martins in third.
F2 returns to Imola for the fourth round of the season as Richard Verschoor looks to extend his championship lead at the top of the Drivers’ Standings.
It was Alex Dunne for Rodin Motorsport who topped the timing sheets in the only practice session at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari.
The Irishman was followed by Campos Racing’s Arvid Lindblad in second and Kush Maini in third for DAMS Lucas Oil.
Beganovic clinches pole for F2 Feature Race in Imola
The Briton was the first to set a competitive lap as he went fastest with a 1:28.175s before Martins went quicker for ART.
Dunne soon found his rhythm to take provisional pole early on with a lap time of 1:27.827s. – marginally better than his best lap from practice.
Verschoor struggled early and with 10 minutes gone, the championship leader was down in 17th place.
Lindblad improved to pip Dunne by just 0.009s before Martins stormed ahead with a 1:27.424s, around four tenths quicker than the Campos driver.
The reigning Formula 3 World Champion Leonardo Fornaroli eventually set his first competitive lap to go second for Invicta Racing, 0.278s off from the leading Frenchman.
In fifth and sixth was the Hitech duo of Luke Browning and Beganovic, then followed by the DAMS duo of Maini and Jak Crawford.
Martins’ team-mate Ritomo Miyata occupied ninth as Montoya initially went fourth fastest before dropping down to 10th place – the crucial reverse-grid pole position.
With half the session gone, the drivers returned to the pits for a change of tyres and a chance to recharge before going out once again.
Returning to the circuit with 10 minutes left, the drivers completed their final warm-up laps for an enthralling shootout for pole.
Montoya stepped up first and went fastest in the first sector before losing time in the middle sector.
However, the Colombian racing driver improved enough to initially take pole by just 0.003s ahead of Martins.
Beganovic was the second to cross the line, with others improving behind him, and he jumped Montoya at the top of the timing sheets by the same margin.
A red flag was called immediately after Maini lost control of his DAMS car through Tamburello, Turn 2 into Turn 4.
Lindblad had set the fastest middle sector but was unable to improve due to the incident.
After a short delay, race control announced that the session would not resume with Formula 1 FP2 fast approaching.
Therefore, Beganovic will start the Feature from pole position for Hitech.
Montoya achieved his best qualifying result so far in his rookie F2 campaign with a front row start for Sunday’s race.
Martins qualified in third to complete the top three, Fornaroli in fourth, Dunne fifth, Lindblad sixth, Browning seventh and Oliver Goethe set a late lap time to take eighth for MP Motorsport.
Despite crashing out of qualifying, Maini ended the session in ninth to secure a provisional front-row start for Saturday’s race.
Crawford qualified 10th to claim the reverse-grid pole for the Sprint Race.
Title contender Pepe Marti could only manage 12th for Campos, while Joshua Durksen in 14th for AIX Racing and Gabriele Minì in 15th also endured difficult sessions.
Richard Verschoor finished down in 19th, a disappointing result that could have serious implications for his championship hopes.
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