Leclerc dominates F2 qualifying in Bahrain
Charles Leclerc claimed his maiden FIA Formula 2 pole position in the qualifying at the Sakhir International Circuit. The Monegasque rookie used an alternative strategy to finish the first ever F2 qualifying ahead of PREMA Racing team mate Antonio Fuoco and Nyck de Vries.
The first man out on the race track was the fastest man of today’s free practice session, Oliver Rowland. The DAMS man was also the first one to set a benchmark lap time of 1:40.230 minutes. However, Rowland did not last long on top as Leclerc put his foot down and claimed the provisional pole position with three purple sectors and a time of 1:39.518 minutes. Norman Nato jumped up to second place, two tenths of a second slower than the Monegasque.
Ten minutes into the session, Leclerc was the first man to pit for new Pirelli tyres, while his team mate Fuoco pushed hard on the track to slot into provisional second place, seven hundredths of a second off Leclerc’s time.
With all the other drivers in the pits around the halfway mark of the qualifying session, Leclerc had the track all to himself. The rookie was able to make use of the empty space and improved his time even further with yet another lap with three purple sectors.
The rest of the field rejoined the track with ten minutes left on the clock while Leclerc retreated to the garage to watch the final stage from the pit wall. Rowland pushed hard to improve; however, he was struggling with brakes and tyres and a lock-up ruined his flying lap. Nyck de Vries was the only driver to make significant improvement: the Rapax man was able to jump up to third place.
In the dying minutes of the session the proceedings were interrupted by an incident. Gustav Malja and Nabil Jeffri came together, and with both cars stranded on track the session ended with a virtual safety car phase.
The PREMA Racing duo remained unchallenged at the top ahead of de Vries. Nato will start tomorrow’s F2 Feature race from fourth place ahead of Luca Ghiotto, Nobuharu Matsushita, and Artem Markelov. Rowland finished the qualifying session in eighth place ahead of Alexander Albon and Sergio Sette Camara.