Iwasa takes maiden F2 pole by three tenths at Hungaroring

Formula 2

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Ayumu Iwasa took his first Formula 2 pole position at the Hungaroring, with a blistering lap three tenths of a second quicker than any other driver.

Hitech driver Marcus Armstrong will line up alongside Iwasa on the front row of the grid for Sunday’s Feature Race, with championship leader Felipe Drugovich in third.

Armstrong was the first driver to set a time in the qualifying session. His 1’29.228 was swiftly beaten by both Frederick Vesti and Theo Pourchaire’s ART cars, who initially set the pace.

Drugovich was able to split the ARTs to be second-fastest in the first ten minutes, before most drivers returned to the pits. Only a small handful stayed out, one of whom was Olli Caldwell who took the fastest time for Campos with a 1’28.803, just ahead of other drivers returning to the track.

Track evolution was not in favour of any driver who had taken the gamble to run out of sequence with the others, even though the risk of traffic with other cars out on track was much higher. Armstrong set a 1’28.311 to carve nearly half a second out of Caldwell’s time and appeared to look assured for pole.

Iwasa initially looked scrappy in his second run, struggling to stay within track limits at turn five and only managing to set a time good enough for fifth-fastest. Drugovich took second-fastest, a tenth off Armstrong’s pace and the Hitech driver looked increasingly safe at the top, as neither ART could manage to unseat him.

However, Iwasa went out on a final run and became the only driver to dip into the 1’27s, setting a 1’27.930 and going three-tenths faster than Armstrong. Armstrong kept second-place, so will start the feature race alongside Iwasa on the front row, with title rivals Drugovich and Pourchaire on the row behind.

Jack Doohan will take partially-reversed-grid sprint race pole, after qualifying tenth. Iwasa slightly extends his lead over Armstrong for ninth in the standings, moving five points ahead. Having scored his maiden Formula 2 win in the feature race at Le Castellet, this is the DAMS drivers’ first pole position in Formula 2.

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Formula 2 Hungarian qualifying results

PositionCarDriverTeam
117Ayumu IwasaDAMS
27Marcus ArmstrongHitech
311Felipe DrugovichMP
410Theo PourchaireART
56Logan SargeantCarlin
68Juri VipsHitech
79Frederik VestiART
81Dennis HaugerPrema
922Enzo FittipaldiCharouz
103Jack DoohanVirtuosi
115Liam LawsonCarlin
122Jehan DaruvalaPrema
1314Olli CaldwellCampos
1420Richard VerschoorTrident
154Marino SatoVirtuosi
1623Cem BolukbasiCharouz
1724David BeckmannVan Amersfoort
1821Calan WilliamsTrident
1912Clement NovalakMP
2015Roberto MerhiCampos
2116Roy NissanyDAMS
22Amaury CordeelVan Amersfoort

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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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5 comments on “Iwasa takes maiden F2 pole by three tenths at Hungaroring”

  1. Congratulations to Iwasa after his first feature race last week and now pole in his rookie season, more impressive than zhou who won nothing in his maiden season.. I hope Iwasa can find a seat in F1 in the future when Honda enters f1 as a full works team..

    1. @ccpbioweapon

      It is some gap but calm down, Yuki in year use to hammer the year 2 champion in Mick Schumacher in qually. There nowhere near top drivers they would not be missed one bit. Good on iwasa who looks very good at the minute and is showing Pourchaire right up. There is no top driver in this field. All the best f1 drivers currently all seperated themselves from there piers.

  2. 3 tenths faster than 2nd in basically cars that would probably be a tenth diff mainly due to setup is some achievement, and this after last weekend. Starting to get dissapointed in Porchaire he should be dominating if he is as good as the hype

  3. I dont think there is a Ham, Lec, Russel or Ves in this field we will be lucky to get a Lando level talent. Probably will end up with a Sch and Tsunoda caliber driver. We had likes of Magnussen types and Vandoorne meh drivers then we get cream of the crop in Lec and Russel and now back to meh with Mick and Yuki and now Pourchaire and Deruvula, how embarrassing around hungary is that gap. Not like it is Spa or wet.

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