Felipe Drugovich qualified on pole for the first time in his FIA Formula 2 career, as the Brazilian pulled out a superb final flying lap to put his MP Motorsport at the front for Saturday’s Feature Race at Silverstone.
Jehan Daruvala topped the session at the end of the first part of running, albeit less than a tenth clear of Christian Lundgaard in second and Jack Aitken in third. Yuki Tsunoda was fourth in front of Callum Ilott, Mick Schumacher, Drugovich, Guanyu Zhou and Dan Ticktum.
Schumacher had trouble on his first run after he was held up by Roy Nissany at the end of a fast lap for the German. That left him with work to do on his second run. The incident is under investigation by the stewards.
With the risk of rain eventually staying away, there were time for improvements throughout the field. After a few different drivers inherited the top spot, it was Drugovich’s last gasp effort that beat Ilott by 0.139 seconds.
Schumacher improved to third ahead of Lundgaard. Nikita Mazepin will start fifth for Hitech, with Aitken, Daruvala, Zhou, Tsunoda and Louis Deletraz rounding out the top ten.
Championship leader Robert Shwartzman had little to smile about though, as his gamble of coming out on the racetrack later than most of the others did not pay off and his best efforts were only good enough for 18th place on the grid.
The Feature Race for FIA F2 begins on Saturday afternoon at 15:45 BST.
| # | Driver | Team | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | F. Drugovich | MP Motorsport | 1:39.527 | – |
| 2 | C. Ilott | UNI-Virtuosi | 1:39.666 | 0.139 |
| 3 | M. Schumacher | PREMA Racing | 1:39.761 | 0.234 |
| 4 | C. Lundgaard | ART Grand Prix | 1:39.846 | 0.319 |
| 5 | N. Mazepin | Hitech Grand Prix | 1:39.963 | 0.436 |
| 6 | J. Aitken | Campos Racing | 1:40.082 | 0.555 |
| 7 | J. Daruvala | Carlin | 1:40.140 | 0.613 |
| 8 | G. Zhou | UNI-Virtuosi | 1:40.180 | 0.653 |
| 9 | Y. Tsunoda | Carlin | 1:40.216 | 0.689 |
| 10 | L. Delétraz | Charouz Racing System | 1:40.324 | 0.797 |
