Doohan claims Monza pole as Iwasa crash thwarts Pourchaire

Formula 2

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Jack Doohan took pole position for the Formula 2 feature race at Monza after Ayumu Iwasa crashed late in the session bringing out the red flags.

Felipe Drugovich started the weekend 69 points ahead of closest championship rival Théo Pourchaire, with the title likely to be decided at this penultimate round.

After drivers’ first hot laps, it was Doohan who was fastest, with Jüri Vips less than a tenth behind. Title contenders Drugovich and Pourchaire were fourth and fifth fastest, their times within a tenth of a second of each other.

Drivers all pitted with 13 minutes to go, waiting for the optimum window for their second serious run. Cars emerged with less than six minutes remaining, the fast laps starting with just under four minutes to go. Iwasa beat Doohan’s time with a 1’31.920 but that was swiftly beaten by Jehan Daruvala, then Drugovich, Marcus Armstrong, Liam Lawson and Doohan again.

Dennis Hauger ran wide on his first fast lap, although was able to keep control of his car and avoid a yellow or red flag being shown, allowing other drivers to continue their runs.

Iwasa looked set to improve on his final lap, but lost control of his car through the Alboreto final corner, crashing into the barriers in a manner almost identical to Isack Hadjar in the earlier FIA Formula 3 qualifying session. A burst of flame and a huge puff of smoke followed his car going rear-first into the tyre barriers, although Iwasa later said he was unharmed by the accident.

The red flag was shown, ending qualifying before drivers had been able to set their fastest laps and with disastrous timing for Pourchaire. His first lap of the final minutes had not been good enough for better than 14th and without the chance to complete a second lap, he will start outside the top ten for both races this weekend.

Comparatively, Drugovich placed fourth – however, he and Richard Verschoor had improved their times as the yellow flag was shown for Iwasa’s crash.

Doohan will start on pole for the feature race, Lawson alongside him. Frederick Vesti came tenth, for partially-reversed-grid pole with Logan Sargeant sharing the front row for tomorrow’s sprint race.

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Formula 2 Monza qualifying results

Position Car Driver Team
1 3 Jack Doohan Virtuosi
2 5 Liam Lawson Carlin
3 7 Marcus Armstrong Hitech
4 11 Felipe Drugovich MP
5 20 Richard Verschoor Trident
6 2 Jehan Daruvala Prema
7 17 Ayumu Iwasa DAMS
8 8 Juri Vips Hitech
9 6 Logan Sargeant Carlin
10 9 Frederik Vesti ART
11 24 David Beckmann Van Amersfoort
12 25 Amaury Cordeel Van Amersfoort
13 15 Ralph Boschung Campos
14 10 Theo Pourchaire ART
15 4 Marino Sato Virtuosi
16 22 Enzo Fittipaldi Charouz
17 21 Calan Williams Trident
18 16 Luca Ghiotto DAMS
19 1 Dennis Hauger Prema
20 14 Olli Caldwell Campos
21 12 Clement Novalak MP
22 Tatiana Calderon Charouz

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Author information

Hazel Southwell
Hazel is a motorsport and automotive journalist with a particular interest in hybrid systems, electrification, batteries and new fuel technologies....

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