Jüri Vips claimed a closely-fought FIA Formula 2 maiden pole position at Imola, beating fellow Red Bull Junior driver Ayumu Iwasa who clinched second in the final minutes of the qualifying session.
The Estonian’s tremendous flying lap late on saw him go over half a second faster than Ralph Boschung to drop the Free Practice pacesetter down the order to fourth before Jack Doohan also leapt up the order to grab P3.
Unlike other sessions from Friday’s action at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, there was only one red flag; Olli Caldwell lost grip of his Campos and slid into the gravel, bringing the only stoppage in qualifying.
Doohan’s impressive lap came out of nowhere and saw the Australian in second place, but his provisional front row was short-lived as Iwasa quickly pipped him to second. The Japanese driver ended just 0.157s off Vips’ lap time.
Boschung ended in fourth after a solid two sessions in today’s action, ahead of PREMA Racing’s Dennis Hauger in fifth; the Norwegian’s first time taking a top-five finish in F2 qualifying.
Roy Nissany qualified sixth in the second DAMS car despite sliding down the order from his high P3 placing in the dying stages. This result marks Nissany’s best qualifying session in 2022, with his last top 10 qualifying performance coming last year at Silverstone.
ART Grand Prix’s Theo Pourchaire finished seventh, with PREMA’s Jehan Daruvala settled in eighth, ahead of Hitech’s Marcus Armstrong and Carlin’s rookie Logan Sargeant rounding out the top ten.
FIA Formula 2 will be back for the third Sprint Race of the season at 17:55 local times, with the reverse grid pole-sitter Logan Sargeant starting on the front row of the grid alongside Marcus Armstrong.
| Pos | Driver | Team | Fastest Lap | Interval |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | IWASA | DAMS | 0:00.000 | |
| 2 | 0:00.000 | +0.000 | ||
| 3 | 0:00.000 | +0.000 | ||
| 4 | 0:00.000 | +0.000 | ||
| 5 | 0:00.000 | +0.000 | ||
| 6 | 0:00.000 | +0.000 | ||
| 7 | 0:00.000 | +0.000 | ||
| 8 | 0:00.000 | +0.000 | ||
| 9 | 0:00.000 | +0.000 | ||
| 10 | 0:00.000 | +0.000 | ||
| 11 | 0:00.000 | +0.000 | ||
| 12 | 0:00.000 | +0.000 | ||
| 13 | 0:00.000 | +0.000 | ||
| 14 | 0:00.000 | +0.000 | ||
| 15 | 0:00.000 | +0.000 | ||
| 16 | 0:00.000 | +0.000 | ||
| 17 | 0:00.000 | +0.000 | ||
| 18 | 0:00.000 | +0.000 | ||
| 19 | 0:00.000 | +0.000 | ||
| 20 | 0:00.000 | +0.000 | ||
| 21 | 0:00.000 | +0.000 | ||
| 22 | 0:00.000 | +0.000 |
Image: Formula Motorsport Ltd
