Vips Storms to Pole in F2’s Return to Imola

Jüri Vips took the first Pole Position of his FIA Formula 2 career on a wet and soggy evening at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, beating DAMS’ Ayumu Iwasa by a tenth of a second.

The afternoon practice session was disrupted by rain and saw Ralph Boschung at the top of timing sheets at the checkered flag and it was the Swiss driver who was first to set a competitive time.

He was then toppled by Van Amersfoort Racing’s Jake Hughes before the Estonian driver, Vips, moved to the top.

Before the drivers could head out for their final few push laps in their attempt at Sunday’s Feature Race Pole, Olli Caldwell found himself spinning off the track in Sector 1 which brought out the first and only red flag of the Qualifying session.

Boschung found even more time once the drivers were allowed back on track, a time that was beaten by Vips with a few minutes remaining in the session. His time of 1:40.221 would end up being the fastest time of the day.

Virtuosi Racing’s Jack Doohan rounded out the top three after a late attempt which slotted him in front of Boschung and behind Iwasa on the second row of the grid.

After some bad luck to start his rookie F2 campaign, the reigning FIA Formula 3 champion Dennis Hauger nailed his best Qualifying feat of the season so far in fifth place, ahead of Roy Nissany on the third row.

Théo Pourchaire set the seventh fastest time of the session with Hauger’s PREMA Racing team-mate Jehan Daruvala in eighth position.

The fifth row of Sunday’s grid and the front row of Saturday’s Sprint Race will be occupied by Marcus Armstrong and Carlin’s Logan Sargeant, who will start the SR from reverse grid pole.

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	TEAM	TIME
1	8	Jüri Vips	EST	Hitech Grand Prix	1:40.221
2	17	Ayumu Iwasa	JPN	DAMS	+0.157
3	3	Jack Doohan	AUS	Virtuosi Racing	+0.210
4	15	Ralph Boschung	CHE	Campos Racing	+0.275
5	1	Dennis Hauger	NOR	PREMA Racing	+0.351
6	16	Roy Nissany	ISR	DAMS	+0.400
7	10	Théo Pourchaire	FRA	ART Grand Prix	+0.641
8	2	Jehan Daruvala	IND	PREMA Racing	+0.665
9	7	Marcus Armstrong	NZL	Hitech Grand Prix	+0.783
10	6	Logan Sargeant	USA	Carlin	+0.841
11	23	David Beckmann	GER	Charouz Racing System	+0.908
12	11	Felipe Drugovich	BRA	MP Motorsport	+0.910
13	12	Clément Novalak	FRA	MP Motorsport	+0.952
14	5	Liam Lawson	NZL	Carlin	+0.978
15	22	Enzo Fittipaldi	BRA	Charouz Racing System	+1.014
16	9	Frederick Vesti	DNK	ART Grand Prix	+1.213
17	24	Jake Hughes	GBR	Van Amersfoort Racing	+1.299
18	25	Amaury Cordeel	BEL	Van Amersfoort Racing	+1.371
19	20	Richard Verschoor	NED	Trident	+1.923
20	21	Calan Williams	AUS	Trident	+2.277
21	14	Olli Caldwell	GBR	Campos Racing	+2.733
22	4	Marino Sato	JPN	Virtuosi Racing	+3.090

F2: Imola – Qualifying Classfication

The race weekend begins on Saturday where the 22 drivers will take to the track for the Sprint Race.