Alexander Albon dominated qualifying to secure his second consecutive Formula 2 pole position for round three of the 2018 season at the Circuit de Barcelona.
DAMS opted for an alternative approach to qualifying after traffic has proved difficult to manage in the opening stages. Albon, who held provisional pole after the first runs, along with team-mate Nicholas Latifi ran in the gap between the conventional first and second runs.
With just the DAMS pair on track, Albon improved to a 1m28.142s shaving 0.35s off of his previous benchmark. Latifi jumped up to a provisional second place. The team then suffered a nervous wait in the pitlane while the rest of the field completed their final runs.
A flurry of personal best times caused the timesheet to change dramatically in the closing moments, but Albon maintained top spot to claim pole.
Nyck de Vries was Albon’s closest challenger. Having been second after the first runs, de Vries reclaimed a front-row spot on his final lap. He ended the session 0.227s behind Albon. Campos Racing’s Luca Ghiotto was third.
ART Grand Prix’s duo of George Russell and Jack Aitken qualified fourth and fifth respectively, with Aitken setting a session-best time in the second sector. Unable to hang onto a front-row spot, Latifi slipped to an eventual sixth.
Tadasuke Makino qualified seventh, with McLaren Formula 1 protege Lando Norris in eighth place for Carlin. Prior to this weekend, Norris had not qualified lower than second.
Norris’ team-mate Sergio Sette Camara will start from 14th after he suffered a throttle link issue at the start of the session. The team resolved the fault allowing Camara to take to the track for a qualifying run at the end of the session.
The MP Motorsport pairing of Ralph Boschung and ex-F1 driver Roberto Merhi rounded out the top 10. They were followed by the Charouz Racing System duo of Antonio Fuoco and Louis Deletraz, who argued that one of his laps was blocked by Aitken at Turn 2.
Artem Markelov once again struggled for pace in qualifying, ending the session in 19th. He was last of the drivers to set a competitive time.
Behind Markelov on the grid will be Trident’s Santino Ferrucci, who crashed after a high-speed spin at Turn 9. He had only managed one timed lap before the incident and triggered the session’s only red flag. The Haas F1 reserve driver also spun and beached his car in practice earlier in the day.
