Iwasa Reigns Supreme In Budapest; Seals Maiden Pole Position

After securing his first win in FIA Formula 2 last weekend in Le Castellet, DAMS‘ Ayumu Iwasa put in a dominant performance at the Hungaroring to take his first F2 pole position by nearly four tenths.

Hitech Grand Prix’s Marcus Armstrong will start alongside the lightening fast Japanese driver in the second place grid slot for Sunday’s driver while championship leader Felipe Drugovich rounded out the top three qualifiers of the weekend.

It was the Kiwi driver who set the first benchmark early on in the session while Iwasa and his team-mate Roy Nissany suffered from lock-ups on their first runs on the Hungarian track.

Théo Pourchaire was next to take the top spot only to be bested by his ART Grand Prix team-mate moments later when Frederik Vesti topped the timing sheets.

The Frenchman will start from fourth on the grid with the Dane starting from seventh.

With most of the drivers opting to pit after two flying laps, Campos Racing’s Olli Caldwell used the opportunity of a free track to move himself up from sixteenth place to first, setting a time which was just four thousandths faster than Vesti’s.

The Brit didn’t last at the top for long, with Armstrong finding his rhythm once again to retake provisional pole ahead of Pourchaire and last weeks pole-sitter Logan Sargeant.

Armstrong failed to improve again on his final run, opening the door for Iwasa to set purple sectors and throw himself three and a half tenths above the rest of the grid with no answer from anyone else.

Jüri Vips took the sixth fastest time of the session, with Dennis Hauger taking eighth and Enzo Fittipaldi starting from ninth.

The reverse grid pole sitter for Saturday’s Sprint Race falls to Virtuosi Racing’s Jack Doohan who qualified in tenth place, seven and a half tenths off of Iwasa’s out of reach benchmark.

POS	NO.	NAME	NAT	TEAM	TIME
1	17	Ayumu Iwasa	JPN	DAMS	1:27.930
2	7	Marcus Armstrong	NZL	Hitech Grand Prix	+0.381
3	11	Felipe Drugovich	BRA	MP Motorsport	+0.410
4	10	Théo Pourchaire	FRA	ART Grand Prix	+0.429
5	6	Logan Sargeant	USA	Carlin	+0.451
6	8	Jüri Vips	EST	Hitech Grand Prix	+0.461
7	9	Frederik Vesti	DNK	ART Grand Prix	+0.632
8	1	Dennis Hauger	NOR	PREMA Racing	+0.674
9	22	Enzo Fittipaldi	BRA	Charouz Racing System	+0.756
10	3	Jack Doohan	AUS	Virtuosi Racing	+0.761
11	5	Liam Lawson	NZL	Carlin	+0.820
12	2	Jehan Daruvala	IND	PREMA Racing	+0.856
13	14	Olli Caldwell	GBR	Campos Racing	+0.873
14	20	Richard Verschoor	NLD	Trident	+0.919
15	4	Marino Sato	JPN	Virtuosi Racing	+1.088
16	23	Cem Bölükbasi	TUR	Charouz Racing System	+1.172
17	24	David Beckmann	GER	Van Amersfoort Racing	+1.413
18	21	Calan Williams	AUS	Trident	+1.416
19	12	Clément Novalak	FRA	MP Motorsport	+1.551
20	15	Roberto Merhi	ESP	Campos Racing	+1.617
21	16	Roy Nissany	ISR	DAMS	+1.676
22	25	Amaury Cordeel	BEL	Van Amersfoort Racing	+1.862

F2: Budapest – Qualifying Classification