Paul Aron took pole position in Qatar for the FIA Formula 2 Feature race on Sunday after improving multiple times to secure his position on the front row.
Aron was challenged many times in the Qualifying session but he couldn’t be beaten by his F2 rivals setting a lap time of 1:35.115s.
Gabriel Bortoleto in the Invicta Racing car was second with Victor Martins completing the top three in the ART.
Dino Beganovic was fourth on his debut in F2 and Richard Verschoor completed the top five for MP Motorsport.
Jak Crawford was behind his Dams Lucas Oil team-mate Beganovic in sixth and Kush Maini finished in seventh in the other Invicta.
Oliver Goethe impressed after qualifying in eighth, and Isack Hadjar finished in ninth with his title rival Bortoleto starting further up the grid.
Oliver Bearman rounded off the top 10 for the F2 Qualifying as he will start the Sprint race from pole.
Aron on top in F2 Qatar GP Qualifying
Aron in the Hitech set the early pace, following on from his blistering performance in the only practice session, with a time of 1:37.619s – more than four-tenths of a second quicker than Bearman.
His time was initially beaten by F2 Championship leader Bortoleto, Bearman and Martins, but the Estonian driver shot right back up to P1 after setting a lap time of 1:36.614s.
As Aron headed back to the pits after a moment in Turn 4, Bortoleto went for a third lap and just managed to pip Aron’s time by 0.028s.
Halfway through the session, the Brazillian driver led the way with Aron in second and Martins in third.
After all 22 drivers pitted for a fresh set of tyres, the battle for pole position re-commenced for the final part of Qualifying.
Once again, Aron was going quicker than anyone else in Qatar as he improved to set a provisional pole time of 1:36.088s.
Bortoleto improved but he remained three-tenths off the Hitech driver.
With less than four minutes left, the lap times started to ramp up as Verschoor went top of the timing sheets.
However, Aron went even quicker with a time of 1:35.427s, more than six-tenths of a second quicker than the Dutch driver.
Bortoleto narrowly missed out on beating his time by 0.023s and he soon pitted after his final attempt.
Aron went around again and improved on his time once more to set a time of 1:35.115s, which was more than good enough for pole position.
In the title fight, the advantage goes to Bortoleto for the Feature race but Hadjar will have a great opportunity tomorrow starting from second in the Sprint race.
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