Victor Martins will start from pole position in Austria for the FIA Formula 2 Feature Race. 

Richard Verschoor was the first driver to head out on track in Friday afternoon’s Qualifying session. Verschoor opened up about his hard work to be able to race in this year’s season earlier on this weekend. 

After the first set of runs, Jeddah pole-sitter Martins topped the timing screens with a 1:14.926.

Enzo Fittipaldi and Jack Doohan both had times deleted due to exceeding track limits. They were both on target for starting towards the top of the grid. 

Isack Hadjar suffered an engine issue with 16 minutes to go. He returned to the pits with smoke puffing out of his Hitech in the final corner. 

The next set of runs saw Martins further extend his gap at the front by 3 tenths of a second. A tenth behind him was last year’s pole-sitter and championship leader, Frederick Vesti. 

Fittipaldi was on course for a strong lap with 3 minutes to go. An off for Jehan Daruvala in the final sector caused him to take evasive action, ruining his chances on that particular run. 

A mistake on his next lap saw him off the track, meaning Fittipaldi would only start seventh, despite being in contention for pole. 

Ahead of the session, Ralph Boschung was awarded a 3 place grid drop for failing to follow the race director’s instructions. He starts at the back of the field even without his penalty after qualifying 22nd. 

Daruvala will start on pole for Saturday’s Sprint Race. All positions are provisional as a lot of penalties are to be expected after track limits come into play. 

Make sure you check our twitter to keep up to date with any changes to the starting grid for the Feature Race.