As the sun went down on the Jeddah circuit, the single-seaters of Formula 2 took to the track for qualifying which has the task of decreeing the poleman for Sunday's Feature Race. This time, unlike what happened in Bahrain, it is the Frenchman Victor Martins who secures the front row for Sunday's race. To keep him company from the second square there will be Ollie Bearman, followed by Thèo Pourchaire.
Martins and the perfect ride
Since this morning's free practice, Martins proved himself no doubt fast, putting the ART GP car in third place. The track conditions must have been optimal, the set of super soft tires, the want to forget that contact right away which led him to retirement in race 2 or a combination of the three to allow Martins to take pole position. A call-and-response of increasingly slower tempos, the one between driver number #6 and Ollie Bearman, who put on a show, especially in the last minutes of the qualifying session in Saudi Arabia. While Martins sets the fastest time on the scoreboard, the young man who competes for Prema look for the perfect ride, even kissing the wall and placing himself in provisional third position.
10 minutes from the end of the session, with fresh rubber, all the riders improve their times, especially the Englishman Bearman, that manages to take the first position. Behind him, however, a hungry man Victor Martins is flying: colors all the sectors of the circuit in fuchsia and obtains an amazing time 1:41.326. The session ends with Bearman in second position, with a gap of 0.744s from the pole sitter.
Leclerc: good but not great
On this Friday of qualifying for Formula 2, Arthur Leclerc proved to be a daredevil. Not frightened by the curbs and even less by the walls that delimit this circuit, the Ferrari Driver Academy driver has repeatedly attempted to appropriate that pole position, That is essential for Sunday's race. Leclerc manages to grab that position, just as the other riders on the grid were trying to bring the tires up to temperature.
With 18 minutes remaining in the session, the Van Amersfoort Racing driver, Richard Verschoor, spun at the exit of the racing line of turn 22, causing a red flag. Leclerc's time remains frozen for several minutes after the resumption of qualifying, until he is however dodged from first place. However, the DAMS driver wanted to improve on that time which had slowly climbed from first position towards the middle of the grid. But something goes wrong for the Monegasque, his car stops on the track, thus causing the second red flag of these qualifiers. The qualifying session interrupted 2 minutes from the end will not be resumed, the curtain falls, for today, on the circuit.
Tomorrow is preferably used for Sprint Race there will be Jack Crawford and Ralph Boschung to lead the group, who will prevail?
