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Qualifying for Formula 2 in Monza was a hectic session with multiple red flags and plenty of excitement.
Pole position was won by Rodin Motorsport’s Zane Maloney, who took his maiden pole in F2 ahead of Isack Hadjar and Paul Aron.
There was plenty of change ahead of the weekend, with Franco Colapinto getting called up to replace Logan Sargeant at Williams Racing in Formula 1. He was replaced at MP Motorsport by Oliver Goethe, jumping up from Formula 3 to make his debut this weekend.
Kimi Antonelli also had a taste of Formula 1 this weekend, coming into Qualifying straight from a Free Practice appearance with Mercedes AMG F1.
In addition, AIX Racing’s Taylor Barnard left Formula 2 on the back of his announcement at McLaren’s Formula E team. He was replaced by Niels Koolen, the second driver to make his debut this weekend.
How it happened
30 minutes on the clock, and Trident’s Roman Stanek was the sole driver on track for the first few minutes of the session. But it wasn’t long before he was followed by the rest of the grid, though they were reluctant to set any actual fast laps.
With ten minutes gone, drivers finally began their first flying laps, Antonelli taking provisional pole position with a lap time of 1:32.941. Zane Maloney, who topped practice earlier today, was close to the end of his first flying lap when the Red Flag came out suddenly and he had to abort.
The session was stopped with 19 minutes to go because of debris on track after ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins went into the gravel.
When Qualifying restarted, with just 16 minutes to go now and only six drivers actually on the board with a lap time, all 22 drivers hurried out of the pits. Championship leader Isack Hadjar managed to get a good time in, going fourth before he was displaced by Dennis Hauger.
Before any more drivers could get a time set, a second Red Flag was called out as Gabriel Bortoleto went into the gravel and was unable to continue. As a result of the tight schedule for the weekend, the clock continued to tick down as the Red Flag was out.
Only eight drivers had a time on the board: Antonelli, Enzo Fittipaldi, Hauger, Hadjar, Paul Aron, Stanek, Richard Verschoor, and Koolen.
Fortunately for the rest of the grid, Bortoleto’s car was recovered quickly, and the session got going again with seven minutes to go.
With everyone but Bortoleto back on track at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza, a flurry of improvements was inevitable. Joshua Durksen of AIX Racing was the first to usurp Antonelli’s pole time, before championship leader Hadjar grabbed the fastest spot, as Aron slotted in close behind.
Then it was Maloney, fastest in practice, who set a time of 1:32.160, 0.089s faster than Hadjar, to claim his first pole position in Formula 2.
Hadjar and Aron stayed ahead of the rest to take second and third, with Hauger and Martins completing the top five. Behind them were Antonelli, Juan Manuel Correa, Oliver Bearman, and Amaury Cordeel. Fittipaldi claimed tenth place and reverse grid pole for tomorrow’s Sprint Race.
Full results can be found here.
Feature Image Credit: James Sutton – Getty Images