Doohan Secures First Pole of 2023 F2 Season at Hungaroring, Defeats Martins and Vesti in Intense Qualifying Battle

Virtuosi’s Jack Doohan scored his first pole position of the 2023 FIA Formula 2 season at the Hungaroring, with an intense fight against Victor Martins, who came in second, followed by championship leader Frederik Vesti. The Australian driver set a time of 1:27.676, which was under threat by his Alpine Academy teammate but was ultimately unbeatable.

Vesti was the first to set the benchmark of 1:28.334 putting him on top for his competitors to fight for the lead. Doohan put himself behind the Dane very early into the session as Ayumu Iwasa made complaints of light rain in sector two, which sent the drivers out to get their positions before the rain hit them.

Doohan’s second place was beaten by Formula 3 champion Martins as he came behind the Dane, followed by his ART teammate Theo Pourchaire, whose lap time was deleted as he ran wide on turn 12. This put Doohan in seventh place.

The first red flag of the session was brought out by the trident of Roman Stanek with about 20 minutes left in the session as he spun into the barriers at turn 11, which brought all the cars into the pits.

Vesti still led the grid with a lap time of 1:27.767, but Martins fought for pole position, which was soon replaced by Doohan putting in the fastest lap of 1:27.676. Martins tried to get to the top, but as the chequered flag fell, his efforts were unsuccessful to outqualify Doohan, as the Australian took pole for Sunday’s feature race

Last year’s feature race winner Theo Pourchaire secured fifth place, followed by Isack Hadjar, Iwasa, 2022 Formula 3 podium sitter Oliver Bearman, The MP pair of Jehan Daruvala and Dennis Hauger, and Kush Maini as Saturday’s reverse grid pole-sitter.

The sprint race is set to start at 14:15 local time.