Paul Aron picked up from where he left off in Practice, setting the fastest time in Qualifying for his maiden Formula 2 Pole Position in an incredibly close session.
DAMS Lucas Oil’s Jak Crawford ended up just 0.002s back in second, with Franco Colapinto third for MP Motorsport, 0.006s behind Aron.
After ending up fastest in Practice, Aron set the first time to beat on a 1:25.385. MP teammates Dennis Hauger and Colapinto filed through in second and third places respectively.
The Red Flag was then thrown after AIX Racing’s Taylor Barnard went off at Turn 9 and into the barriers. He was out of the car and ok, but his car needed recovering.
Running resumed with 23:22 left on the clock but there were no threats to Aron’s provisional Pole time until Isack Hadjar ventured out for his first flying lap. The Frenchman put his Campos Racing car at the top of the times, setting a 1:25.205.
PREMA Racing’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli was also able to move up to second place, just 0.141s down on Hadjar’s effort.
Zane Maloney put himself into the top five for Rodin Motorsport, moving ahead of the MP teammates to go fourth fastest behind Aron.
After a brief spell of quiet in the pitlane, everyone was fitted with fresh Soft tyres and took to the track once again with under 10 minutes to go.
Aron was able to find further improvements to retake the top spot with a 1:24.766 before Ritomo Miyata put himself up to P2 for Rodin, 0.182s behind.
Colapinto fought a snap of oversteer out of the final corner to go within 0.006s of Pole, ending up just short before Jak Crawford went closer still, 0.002s down on Aron’s time.
Gabriel Bortoleto made it four drivers within a tenth of a second, going fourth ahead of Antonelli, who bumped Miyata out of the top five.
Joshua Duerksen made a late improvement to go seventh ahead of Juan Manuel Correa in the DAMS Lucas Oil car, with ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins ninth and Kush Maini in P10.
The Formula 2 Sprint Race is set to get underway in Barcelona at 14:15 local time.
Formula 2 Media | Photos: Formula 2
