FIA Formula 2 championship leader Felipe Drugovich secured his third pole position of the year with a superb lap of the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium.

The Brazilian driver produced a 1:58.232, with only fellow Brazilian Enzo Fittipaldi managing to get within half a second of Drugovich’s time.

Title rival Théo Pourchaire ended the session in eighth, while American Logan Sargeant, who has an outside shot at the title, was third fastest.

After topping a truncated practice, F2 returnee Ralph Boschung will start the reverse-grid Sprint Race from pole on Saturday, having qualified 10^th.

Drugovich’s pole and subsequent two points for it are incredibly timely; the 22-year-old has not won since Monaco, where he also took his previous pole position.

It also dents Pourchaire’s momentum before the summer break, which had seen the Frenchman’s deficit to Drugovich reduce to 21 points ahead of Round 11.

The full top 10 behind Drugovich was: Fittipadli, Sargeant, Jack Doohan, David Beckmann, Liam Lawson, Richard Verschoor, Pourchaire, Jehan Daruvala, and Boschung.

The qualifying session was initially delayed by five minutes, with light drizzle falling on the circuit, but not enough to see the drivers use wet tyres.

Doohan was the first driver to reach Turn 1, La Source, for an attempt at a lap but locked up on the slick surface and spun wildly into the escape area, narrowly missing the new-for-2022 gravel trap.

Doohan escaped, but Hitech’s Jüri Vips was less fortunate, as his spin on the exit kerb of La Source resulted in him stalling the engine and being eliminated from the session, causing a red flag in the process.

Once the session resumed, the second Hitech of Marcus Armstrong set the pace before Drugovich delivered his first mighty lap of the afternoon.

On the second set of tyres, the track improved, which allowed Doohan to improve hugely and leap to the top of timesheets ahead of Drugovich, but the championship leader was on another beast of a lap.

Gaining more than half a second in the middle sector alone, Drugovich put his MP Motorsport car more than seven-tenths clear of the chasing pack.

As the final laps came in, drivers improved, with Fittipaldi and Sargeant getting closest, but no one could usurp Drugovich, who started the season run-in in perfect fashion.

Image: Formula Motorsport Ltd