Dino Beganovic made history as the first F2 pole sitter at the Madring. The Swedish driver set a lap time of 1:44.331. Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak failed to take part in the qualifying session after his fiery crash, in the practice session just hours earlier.
The Madring Catches Several Out
An early disruption came following Sebastian Montoya and Kush Maini both clattering the wall. Montoya hit the wall out of turn 11. He suffered damage, notably, to the rear suspension. The tap with the wall brought out a yellow flag but several drivers ahead continued to push. In pushing, Maini found the wall. The Alpine junior lost the rear into turn 16, spinning around and hitting the wall. He would take no further part in the session. Montoya limped back to the pit lane, parking it just past the entrance. Maini’s red flag meant there would be no ART Grand Prix taking part in qualifying.
A second red flag was caused by Nico Varrone. The Van Amersfoort Racing driver looked to have lost the car into turn 19. He hit the wall facing the outside of the circuit. The second red flag came as a huge help for Prema. When the green flag fell once again the team looked to have managed to fix Montoya’s suspension. The hard work wouldn’t be enough, however, as he complained of a loss of drive. He went no further in the session.
A second session ending incident in turn 11, and a third red flag, came with just over five minutes to go. John Bennett had just gone purple in the first sector. He lost the rear into turn 11 ping-ponging him into opposing walls. The third red flag would’ve created massive disappointment with Bennett being in eighth already on his banker lap. As the sole cause of the red flag, he will lose that lap. When the checkered flag fell it would be a Hitech that crashed. Colton Herta lost the rear out of turn 19. He was on a very decent lap but pushed the limits too far. He was very fortunate the crash took place after the session had ended, as there was no indication of it causing a red flag.
Beganovic Showed Dominating Pace
Early pace showed the fight looked to be between Beganovic, Alex Dunne, and Nikolas Tsolov. First laps had the championship leader at the top of the time sheets. He sat just two thousandths ahead of Dunne. Roman Bilinski also showed early pace sitting just over a tenth off of Tsolov. Martinius Stenshorne was one of many to suffer with lap deletions. The Rodin driver lost a time due to track limits dropping him down the order to 14th. His final lap, within the lines, promoted him to fourth.
It was Beganovic who showed frightening pace throughout the whole qualifying session. He went purple in the first two sectors on his first run after the red flag. It was the third sector that resulted in a huge loss of time, leaving him in fifth during the second red flag. The final blow to the rest of the field, came with seven minutes to go. He set a blistering time eight tenths ahead of P2. He was briefly displaced on the final runs by Dunne but clawed back a two tenth gap.
Dunne spent the whole session in contention for pole. A lock up on his final flying lap prevented any chance at dethroning the Swedish driver. He lines up alongside him in P2. Championship contender, Rafael Câmara, jumped up to third at the last minute. He wrestled the car out of the final corner and crossed the line five tenths off. Championship leader, Tsolov only managed P5. The third red flag prevented him of completing a valuable lap at the time on new tyres. It was a positive day for Emmerson Fittipaldi. The AIX driver qualified in a strong P10 and will start from P1 in tomorrow’s Madring sprint race.