ART Grand Prix's Nyck de Vries claimed pole position for Formula 2’s Monaco Feature Race as he blitzed his rivals during qualifying on Thursday.
Under Formula 2 regulations drivers are split into two groups, with those running odd numbers partaking in Group A, followed by the even-numbered drivers in Group B.
Ferrari protégé Callum Ilott clocked the quickest time in Group A to secure provisional pole position but with the main title protagonists in Group B the benchmark was soon lowered.
De Vries, whose departure from McLaren’s scheme was confirmed earlier this month, posted a time of 1:20.676 as he finished two-tenths clear of Luca Ghiotto.
Sauber Junior Team by Charouz driver Ilott will nonetheless line up from the front row of the grid owing to the manner in which the system works, with the fastest group taking pole, fastest in the other group second, and so on.
UNI Virtuosi’s Ghiotto will take up third on the grid, in front of Prema’s Mick Schumacher, who was just 0.007s slower than Ilott, and Sergio Sette Camara.
Title leader Nicholas Latifi had been due to take up fifth spot – having been third-fastest in Group B – but he was handed a three-place drop for a red light infringement in practice.
Sean Gelael will therefore start from sixth, in front of Renault junior Anthoine Hubert, the aforementioned Latifi, and Honda-backed Nobuharu Matsushita.
Matsushita’s Carlin team-mate Louis Deletraz completes the top 10.
