Austrian Grand Prix: F2 Qualifying Results

F2 hit the track in Spielberg today for Round 7 of the championship and Qualifying saw drama for the top two in the championship and a repeat pole-sitter.

This weekend is the second weekend of the triple-header at the Red Bull Ring in Austria. For Formula 2, it marks the seventh round of the season and during Free Practice this morning, the current vice champion, Isack Hadjar, topped the timesheets.

The Frenchman finished Free Practice in P1 with a time of 1:16.441. Paul Aron finished in second, just 0.239 seconds behind. A Red Flag was waved during the first morning session due to Taylor Barnard stopping on track. A disqualification was also handed out after Free Practice to Pepe Martí for having an insufficient amount of fuel after the session.

However, in Qualifying, it was Dennis Hauger who secured provisional pole position for the F2 Feature Race on Sunday. Joining them on the front row is Joshua Durksen and for tomorrow’s Sprint Race, it will provisionally be Kush Maini on pole.

But let’s get into what happened during F2’s Qualifying over the Austrian Grand Prix weekend.

Qualifying in F2

The cars headed out on track with the Supersoft tyres. It was Dennis Hauger who was first out whilst the AIX Racing car of Barnard stopped in the fast lane of the pit lane. The British driver was then wheeled back into the team’s box. He did manage to get out on track though for the rest of the session.

With the clock clicking down, drivers began to complete some fast laps. The benchmark was set by Juan Manuel Correa as he completed a 1:29.000.

However, Correa’s time in P1 didn’t last long. Others were able to beat the American’s time but it was Hadjar who went fastest. The Campos Racing driver went 1.3 seconds faster than the DAMs driver.

Soon, though, Gabriel Bortoleto topped the timesheets as several others began completing fast laps. Bortoleto was then knocked off P1 by the current championship leader, Aron.

Hadjar, at this point, had been bumped down the order, but his second run saw him improve. He beat Aron’s time by 0.211 seconds, completing a 1:15.828.

A replay showed that both DAMs cars “explored the scenery” as Alex Brundle said. Correa and Crawford found the gravel putting them P21 and P22 respectively.

Issues for the leaders

Whilst Aron sat in P2, he was noted for an unsafe release. Villagomez was also noted and investigated for the same thing.

As the clock ticked down, lots of improvements were seen as the timesheets showed a changing order. However, for the driver at the top of the timesheets, things turned from good to bad.

Hadjar came into the pits with a smoking car that looked to be an engine expiry. The Frenchman struggled with qualifying last time out in Barcelona and was confident he could get a good result today. But with 18 minutes left on the clock, Hadjar was forced to come into the pits.

DRAMA! ?

Isack Hadjar pits with smoke coming from the rear of the car, just a lap after going to provisional pole ?#F2 #AustrianGP pic.twitter.com/h7evjN9PzV

— Formula 2 (@Formula2) June 28, 2024

Half of the session remaining

The likes of Hauger and Bortoleto went to attempt another lap for improvement, but the supersoft tyres proved to have gone past their best conditions. Consequently, some drivers came into the pits to get a new set of tyres.

Correa, Crawford, Kush Maini and Roman Stanek had times deleted due to track limits as all cars sat in the pits with fresh tyres ready to go.

For the second half of the session, it was the two MP Motorsport cars who led the pack back on track with 10 minutes to go. Meanwhile a pitlane incident between Oliver Bearman and Zak O’Sullivan was noted. This will be investigated after the session along with Aron and Villagomez.

The first set of flying laps on the new set of supersofts saw Hauger lead the way. The Norwegian driver set personal best sector times and put his car P1 with a 1:15.487. His teammate went P2 followed by Aron in P3.

Bortoleto then split the two MP cars before Joshua Durksen put his AIX Racing car on the front row, 0.111 seconds behind Hauger. As a result of the improving track times, Hadjar fell to P7 with three and a half minutes left on the clock.

Aron’s second attempt saw the Estonian spin on track after going through the mid-corner of Turn 6 and touching the gravel. Unfortunately for the championship leader, this meant he couldn’t complete another lap to try and improve from P5.

However, others on track keep improving. For Durksen, he improved on his P2 time whilst Hauger couldn’t improve, but the AIX Racing driver could only close the gap between them to 0.008 seconds.

Dennis Hauger goes fastest! ?

He sets a 1:15.487 to go on to provisional pole! ?#F2 #AustrianGP pic.twitter.com/Q1LYn5HPTa

— Formula 2 (@Formula2) June 28, 2024

F2 Provisional Qualifying Results

No pole-sitter this year so far in F2 has achieved victory in a Feature Race. But with Dennis Hauger in P1 on Sunday and on a track with overtaking opportunities, will we see

1 –

2 –

3 –

4 –

5 –

6 –

7 –

8 – Pepe Martí

9 – Oliver Bearman

10 – Kush Maini

Headline image: X @Formula2