Paul Aron made it a Friday sweep, topping Qualifying for Hitech Pulse-Eight in impressive fashion. The Estonian went to the top with his first flying lap and couldn’t be dethroned, finding improvements with every subsequent attempt.
Championship leader Gabriel Bortoleto wound up second, 0.3s down on the 1:35.115 of Aron, while Victor Martins rounded out the top three. Title contender Isack Hadjar finished the session in ninth.
With the early laps of the session, PREMA Racing’s Oliver Bearman put himself to the top with a 1:38.065, 0.125s quicker than familiar foe Martins, who slotted in behind.
That was until Practice pace-setter Aron went quickest by some four tenths, becoming the first driver into the 1:37s.
The track evolution continued to be rapid and on the next go around, Bortoleto set the time to beat with a 1:36.914. Bearman, Martins and then Aron bettered his time, the Hitech driver quickest again on a 1:36.614.
While Bearman and Aron opted to pit, Bortoleto continued to do a third push lap, and he set a 1:36.586 to take over at the halfway stage with direct title rival Hadjar in 13th position.
With 12 minutes to go, drivers returned to the track with fresh Mediums fitted, but the first of the final attempts came with seven minutes left on the clock.
Aron lowered the time to beat to a 1:36.088 with an impressive final sector, while Bortoleto filtered through 0.3s down on that effort in P2.
Inside the final five minutes and the track ramped up once more, and Richard Verschoor lifted himself up to P1, but Aron had yet another answer for his rivals, putting in a 1:35.427.
Bortoleto responded and closed the gap down once more but was 0.023s down in second position. Martins was the only other driver within half a second in third with Verschoor bumped down to P4.
With time for one final run, Bortoleto opted to pit while the majority of the pack remained on the circuit. Aron found one final improvement to set Pole at a 1:35.115, capping off an impressive day in his season.
The Kick Sauber-bound Brazilian remained second at the flag, with Martins third and F2 debutant Dino Beganovic finding a last-gasp improvement to go fourth.
Verschoor ended up fifth on his return to MP, with Jak Crawford ensuring both DAMS Lucas Oil cars were in the top 10 in sixth.
Kush Maini, Oliver Goethe, Hadjar and Bearman rounded out the top 10, with the PREMA Racing driver set to start tomorrow’s Sprint Race from reverse grid Pole.
The Sprint Race in Lusail is set to get underway at 19:20 local time in Qatar.
Formula 2 Media
