In a direct battle between Leonardo Fornaroli of Invicta Racing and Victor Martins of ART Grand Prix, Fornaroli secured his first-ever Formula 2 pole position by a mere tenth of a second, clocking in with a time of 1:44.008. While Hitech TGR’s Luke Browning secured third place at the end of the session.
ART’s Martins set the early pace and benchmark to beat, securing the top spot with a 1:45.110. Rodin Motorsport driver Alexander Dunne narrowly missed out on the second position, finishing just 0.002 seconds behind Martins. However, their efforts were overshadowed by Fornaroli, who achieved an incredible 1:44.642, securing the top spot. Teammate Roman Stanek capitalised on a slipstream to secure the fourth position for Invicta, ahead of the PREMA Racing duo of Gabriele Minì and Sebastián Montoya.
As the race progressed, half of the field decided to wait for the best conditions. As the first 11 drivers returned to the pit lane, the remaining competitors joined the circuit for their first attempts. Josep María Martí emerged as the fastest of the second group, climbing up to the second position for Campos Racing, just 0.223 seconds behind the provisional pole sitter. Richard Verschoor secured the third position for MP Motorsport, followed by Browning, Martins, and Dunne.
Just eight minutes of the session remained when all of the cars returned to the track for their final attempts at the qualifying session.
Martins improved to reclaim the top spot with a 1:44.163, securing a comfortable lead and seemly set to take pole position. However, Fornaroli denied him, returning to P1 to earn his first-ever F2 pole position. Browning secured the third-quickest time, followed by Dunne and Stanek in the top five. Verschoor, Sami Meguetounif of TRIDENT, Rafael Villagómez of Van Amersfoort Racing, Dino Beganovic of Hitech TGR, and Joshua Duerksen completed the top 10.
The Formula 2 Sprint Race is set to get underway at 17:15 local time, with Duerksen set to start on reverse grid pole for AIX Racing.
