Saudi Arabia F2 Grand Prix – Qualifying: Martins untouchable, disappointment for Hadjar
After Théo Pourchaire in Bahrain, it's now his teammate, Victor Martins, who also signs a superb pole position in only his second race in F2. A qualifying session marked by two red flags.
Clearly, this Formula 2 season sees the domination of French drivers from the ART Grand Prix team.
After becoming familiar with the ultra-fast Jeddah circuit during the only free practice session, Victor Martins laid the foundations for a confident qualifying session from the early minutes. Setting a benchmark time of 1.42.766, he was quickly followed by DAMS driver Arthur Leclerc, who took the lead by lowering the mark by 137 milliseconds. Olivier Bearman, satisfied with his Prema car after leading the morning free practice session, takes third place.
First red flag
All the drivers are making improvements, but the first red flag interrupts this momentum with the immobilization of the Dutch driver, Richard Verschoor, who spun out at turn 22.
At this point in the session, the top four is exclusively made up of rookies.
Arthur Leclerc, Victor Martins, Oliver Bearman, and Kush Maini, the reserve driver for Alpine team, Jack Doohan completes the top 5.
After five minutes of interruption, the session resumes. With 10 minutes remaining, the lap times improve; Bearman takes the lead of the leaderboard with a time of 1.42.070. Forchaire, discreet since the beginning of the qualifying session, moves up to third position, only one thousandth behind the British driver. At the same time, his teammate Martins completes an exceptional lap, achieving the purple sector in all three sectors, and crosses the finish line only seven tenths behind with a time of 1.41.326.
Second red flag and end of session
As he had two minutes to try to set a time, Arthur Leclerc also comes to a halt in turn 22, definitively interrupting the session.
Victor Martins therefore secures his first pole position in Formula 2 ahead of Oliver Bearman and Théo Pourchaire.
MAGNIFIQUE! VICTOR MARTINS TAKES POLE! 👏
The @ARTGP rookie storms to P1 by seven tenths of a second!#SaudiArabianGP #F2 pic.twitter.com/lwPR5QFXWA
— Formula 2 (@Formula2) March 17, 2023
With his tenth time, Jak Crawford (Hitech) will start tomorrow from pole position in the sprint race, with the grid inverted for the top ten qualifiers.
The second Hitech driver, Frenchman Isaac Hadjar, is one of the victims of the latest red flag and will start from 19th position.
The sprint race will be broadcasted tomorrow on Canal+ Sport, starting at 3:55 PM.
