Championship leader Charles Leclerc stormed to his eighth pole position of the season at Jerez for the penultimate round of the 2017 Formula 2 season.
Leclerc bettered his practice pacesetter by six tenths, to beat Luca Ghiotto to the fastest time of the 30-minute qualifying session. The Monegasque driver took pole with a 1m24.682s, which was nearly three tenths quicker than the Ghiotto’s best effort.
Sergio Sette Camara was a surprise third quickest; his best qualifying result of the year. The MP Motorsport driver was over half a tenth off Leclerc’s benchmark.
DAMS’ Oliver Rowland was fourth fastest ahead of his rival for second in the drivers’ championship Artem Markelov. A lock-up at Turn 15 left Rowland 0.634s off Leclerc.
Alexander Albon completed the top six; his best qualifying since Austria.
His ART Grand Prix team-mate Nobuharu Matsushita was seventh with Nyck de Vries rounding out the top eight. Nicholas Latifi was ninth with Norman Nato 10th.
On his F2 debut, Alex Palou was 11th fastest for Campos Racing, while his team-mate Ralph Boschung struggled to 20th, over a second off the Spaniard.
Rene Binder was 17th on his return to the series, the Austrian has replaced Roberto Merhi at Rapax.
