Arvid Lindblad clinched his first pole position in Formula 2, securing a front-row start for home favourites Campos Racing in the Spanish Feature Race.
The British driver was on top throughout the qualifying session, holding off a late challenge from Sebastian Montoya to become the second youngest polesitter in the history of the series.
Prema Racing’s Montoya secures a surprise front-row start for Sunday’s race, edging out DAMS Lucas Oil’s Kush Maini to complete the top three.
Title contender Alex Dunne headed into the race weekend with a 10-place grid penalty after he was deemed at fault for the Lap 1 collision in Monaco.
Dunne made contact with Victor Martins into Turn 1, triggering a multi-car pile-up.
He was handed a drive-through penalty for the incident, which, in accordance with the regulations, was converted into a grid drop for the Sprint Race in Spain.
However, the Irishman has now received an additional three-place grid penalty for both races in Spain after clashing with the ART driver once again.
This time, he made contact with the rear of Martins’ car while re-entering the pit lane, unable to stop his Rodin Motorsport machine in time.
Lindblad went fastest in the earlier free practice session ahead of Dunne in second and the Prema of Gabrielle Mini.
Lindblad seizes Spanish F2 Pole with mega lap
The penalised Dunne was quick off the mark in the 30-minute qualifying session; after his warm-up laps, he shot up to the top of the timing sheets.
Soon after, he was dethroned at the top by the Invicta Racing challenger of Leonardo Fornaroli, setting a lap time of 1:25.755s.
His team-mate Roman Stanek went third-quickest as only 10 drivers had set a lap time approaching the halfway mark – others deciding to take their time in the build-up to their first flying lap.
Fresh off the back of his Formula FP1 session, Martins returned to F2 and initially went fifth quickest before others improved.
First up, Lindblad climbed to the top with a 1:25.492s as he was the quickest driver in both the middle and final sectors.
Martins’ ART team-mate Ritomo Miyata climbed up to third, with Jak Crawford behind him fourth for DAMS Lucas Oil.
Richard Verschoor was fourth tenths off from Lindblad in sixth as the Frenchman now occupied the reverse-grid pole position in 10th.
With just over five minutes left, and after a quick break to the qualifying action, the 22 drivers returned to the track for their final attempts.
Championship leader Luke Browning lingered down in 14th, needing a good final run to recover his qualifying session for Hitech.
Up first was Martins and he climbed to fourth before tumbling back down once again as multiple drivers improved.
Dunne initially took second place and the final front row slot before Kush Maini narrowly missed out on provisional pole with a late effort in the session.
Yet out of nowhere, Sebastian Montoya beat Lindblad’s time to initially go fastest for Prema, but the Campos driver went even faster.
The 17-year-old set a 1:25.180s, over two tenths quicker than the Colombian-American racing driver, to take pole position for the Feature Race.
Montoya ended the session in second, securing a front row start ahead of Maini to complete the top three – the Monaco Sprint Race winner carrying his fine form into Spain.
Stanek stole fourth place at the end for a second row start, ahead of Dunne, who qualified fifth, but will start the Sprint Race further down the order due to his grid penalties.
Verschoor ended the session in sixth, Crawford seventh and Browning recovering to eighth after his early struggles in the session.
Joshua Durksen took ninth place for AIX Racing and Fornaroli completed the top 10 in qualifying to take reverse-grid pole for the Sprint.
READ MORE – Jak Crawford takes chaotic Monaco F2 Feature win after first lap pile-up
