Callum Ilott qualifies in pole position for the F2 Featured Race

Callum Ilott set a stunning lap of a 1:39.062 as he qualifies on pole with Christian Lundgaard qualifying second and Jack Aitken in third.

Q1

The 30-minute qualifying session got underway to set the grid for Saturday’s featured race in Formula 2.  All the drivers went out onto the red strip soft tyres for the first time.

Jahun Daruvala was the first driver out the pit lane as most of the drivers followed closely behind the Carlin driver.

Christian Lundgaard set the first competitive time with a lap of 1:39.650 with Yuki Tsunoda and Louis Deletraz only one-tenth behind the ART driver.

With 20 minutes left in the session, Deletraz was first with a time of 1:39.514 but then Lundgaard stole first away from the Charouz driver with a time of 1:39.177 as Jack Aitken went into P2 and Luca Ghiotto in P3.

After two or three competitive runs from the drivers, most of them peeled into the pits to refuel and potential tyre change.

The championship leader Robert Shwartzman was only tenth after his first few of competitive laps with his Prema teammate Mick Schumacher two-hundredths faster than the Russian.

The only driver that was out on the track was Artem Markelov with the BWT HWA Racelab driver in 21st place and 1.854 seconds behind Lundgaard.

10 minutes left in the qualifying session, Markelov started a flying lap as the rest of the drivers joined the BWT driver to set their competitive times that will set tomorrow’s grid for the featured race.

Markelov improved to P16 behind Sean Galeal and 0.917 seconds behind the current pole time set by Lundgaard.

Tsunoda improved to P6, Deletraz improved to P6 and Dan Ticktum jumped to P3 after a mighty lap from the DAMS driver.

Callum Ilott then stepped up and jumped from outside the top ten to pole position with a time of 1:39.062.

Two minutes to go, Lundgaard just fell short with the ART driver one-tenth behind Ilott. The marshalls waved yellow flags after Galeal spun in sector two which more or less confirmed that Ilott would be on pole position for the featured race.

The final grid for Saturday’s featured race looked like this: Callum Ilott in first with Christian Lundgaard and Jack Aitken in P2 and P3. Sean Galeal qualified in fourth, Luca Ghiotto in fifth, Guanyu Zhou in sixth, Nikita Mazepin in seventh, Mick Schumacher in eighth, Louis Deletraz in ninth and Yuki Tsunoda rounded off the top ten.

The championship leader Robert Shwartzman qualified in P11, Felipe Drugovich in P12, Pedro Piquet in P13, Marino Sato in P14, Sean Galeal in P15, Jahun Daruvala in P16, Nobuharu Matsushita in P17, Artem Markelov in P18, Marcus Armstong in P19, Giuliano Alesi in P20, Roy Nissany in P21 and Guilherme Samaia rounded off the grid in 22nd.

Follow us on Twitter @ProstInt.