Jack Doohan has taken pole position for the Formula 2 feature race in Bahrain, the Alpine junior beating Theo Pourchaire by more than a tenth of a second.
The first qualifying session of the new season came to a stop within moments of the start when Ayumu Iwasa spun his DAMS machine off at the second corner after he left the pits. The Red Bull junior ended up stuck in the gravel at the exit of turn three.The session restarted 10 minutes later, the clock having stopped during the red flag. Van Amersfoort, Formula 2’s newest team, were first to second their cars out of the pits.
The team caused a stir by taking pole position on their FIA Formula 3 debut with Franco Colapinto earlier in the day and again looked to set the in F2. Jake Hughes set a benchmark time in the first ten minutes of the session, putting together a 1’41.469 lap before any other driver had dipped below a 1’42.
Felipe Drugovich briefly got ahead of Hughes, setting a 1’41.210. But Hughes did a second push lap on the same set of tyres and crossed the line just after him and improved to a 1’41.121.
Ahead of the final 10 minutes Doohan put together by far the best final sector of any driver, finding an enormous chunk of time. His 1’40.542 looked unbeatable, over half a second ahead of Hughes’ mark.
With just under two minutes remaining the lap times started to seriously fall. Liam Lawson, Ralph Boschung, Logan Sargeant and Juri Vips got ahead of Hughes but all fell short of Doohan. Theo Pourchaire improved to second, only a tenth off Doohan’s lap.
Formula 3 champion Dennis Hauger made a late bid for pole position but had to settle for 14th. Fellow Red Bull junior Jehan Daruvala (one of five in the field) put the final lap of the session in on a track surrounded by cars on a cool down lap and was able to improve from 16th to 7th with a 1’41.115.
Doohan therefore claimed pole and took the first two points of the F2 season. The partially reversed-grid format for the sprint race will see Felipe Drugovich on pole for that race, while Doohan will head the field for Sunday’s feature event.
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Bahrain F2 qualifying result
| Position | Car | Driver |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | Jack Doohan |
| 2 | 10 | Theo Pourchaire |
| 3 | 8 | Juri Vips |
| 4 | 6 | Logan Sargeant |
| 5 | 15 | Ralph Boschung |
| 6 | 5 | Liam Lawson |
| 7 | 2 | Jehan Daruvala |
| 8 | 24 | Jake Hughes |
| 9 | 20 | Richard Verschoor |
| 10 | 11 | Felipe Drugovich |
| 11 | 16 | Roy Nissany |
| 12 | 21 | Calan Williams |
| 13 | 7 | Marcus Armstrong |
| 14 | 4 | Marino Sato |
| 15 | 1 | Dennis Hauger |
| 16 | 22 | Enzo Fittipaldi |
| 17 | 14 | Olli Caldwell |
| 18 | 12 | Clement Novalak |
| 19 | 9 | Frederik Vesti |
| 20 | 23 | Cem Bolukbasi |
| 21 | 25 | Amaury Cordeel |
| 22 | 17 | Ayumu Iwasa |
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Formula 2
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RandomMallard
18th March 2022, 17:48
Impressive and quite unexpected from Doohan I must say. I mean he’s clearly got talent and and a good history (I’ll admit, I didn’t realise he was second in F3 last year until I searched him up), but to come out the blocks like that is a very good start. I think Pourchaire could still be the one to beat though.
Dex
18th March 2022, 21:15
And last name that means something to us who used to watch GP500 (now known as MotoGP). I grew up watching his father becoming a legend of that sport. It’s unusual seeing a Doohan on four wheels though (like it would be seeing Mick Schumacher in Moto2) and I wish him the best. He seem to be a real talent.
RandomMallard
18th March 2022, 22:51
Yeah I was aware he was the son of Mick Doohan who I knew, while not a huge fan of bike racing myself, was somewhat of a legendary figure in motorcycle racing.
I think Jack just slipped under my radar in F3 last year because I (like many others) was somewhat caught up in the Hauger Hype Train. Because from what I can remember, while Hauger was somewhat running away with it (by F3 standards), there was quite a fierce battle over 2nd to 5th (or there abouts) for much of the season.
Qeki (@qeki)
18th March 2022, 23:52
At least I hope Theo will be fighting for the title.