Albon takes Monaco F2 pole, Norris and Russell at the back
Alexander Albon secured pole for Formula 2’s Monaco feature race – his third consecutive pole of the 2018 season – while Formula 1 juniors Lando Norris and George Russell faltered.
Qualifying was split into two groups in order to help drivers avoid traffic. Despite this, Albon – who was part of the first group – had his first lap compromised by Norris.
The championship leader had made contact with the wall on the exit of the Swimming Pool chicane, breaking his front wing. Albon caught the limping Norris at the exit of Tabac one lap later after having set personal best sector one and two times.
Albon’s next lap of 1m21.727s propelled him to the top of the times. This remained the fastest time in the first group.
Nyck de Vries was closest to toppling Albon in the second group, but his timesheet-topping effort was 0.01 seconds slower than that of the polesitter. De Vries will start the feature race in second.
Both Albon and de Vries have an opportunity to make up ground in the championship battle. Following his contact with the barriers, Norris was unable to return to the track for another run. He ended up 17th. The McLaren F1 reserve is also under investigation for blocking Albon.
ART Grand Prix’s George Russell qualified in 18th, 1.2s adrift of de Vries’ group B benchmark. Russell only completed four laps in practice due to an engine issue.
Artem Markelov recorded his best qualifying session of the season to line-up third.
Sergio Sette Camara qualified fourth but suffered a heavy crash at Ste Devote in the last minute of the second group’s session. He reported discomfort in his hand immediately after the incident, speculating that it might be ‘broken.’
Antonio Fuoco improved late on in group A to qualify in fifth, while Luca Ghiotto ended up in sixth.
Having run as high as second in the first group, Maximilian Gunther qualified an eventual seventh and will be joined on the fourth row by Arjun Maini. Santino Ferrucci and Ralph Boschung rounded out the top 10.