DAMS‘ Alexander Albon clinched his third pole position in a row in the streets of Monaco for this weekend’s action in the FIA Formula 2 Championship.
Albon, who started the session in the first group in a two part qualifying session, set the initial pace in qualifying with a 1:21.727. Pertamina Prema Theodore Racing‘s Nyck de Vries set a time 0.010 second slower than the DAMS driver in Group B and will start in second place.
Russian Time‘s Artem Markelov hit back after his mixed start to the season and set the second best time in Group A. The Russian will start tomorrow’s feature race in third place ahead of Carlin Motorsport‘s Sergio Sette Câmara, who crashed in the final moments of qualifying.
Team-mate Lando Norris was in a shot for a decent grid position for the feature race but colliding with the barrier affecting his lap and declined down the field. Norris will start the seventeenth next to George Russell.
Charouz Racing System‘s Antonio Fuoco set an impressive time to go third fastest in Group A and put himself in fifth ahead of Luca Ghiotto.
The fourth row will consist of Maximilian Günther and Arjun Maini in seventh and eighth. Santino Ferrucci in the Trident will start ninth alongside Ralph Boschung, who rounds off the top ten.
With qualifying around Monaco, the session will be split into two groups; Group A and Group B. A will go first consist on odd number cars, B even cars.
The fastest driver overall in any of the groups will start pole, with the fastest driver in the other group will occupy second place. The rest of the grid is decided by next fastest driver from each group.
Group A headed out on track, which will consist of Artem Markelov, Sean Gelael, Alexander Albon, Jack Aitken, Roberto Merhi, Maximilian Günther, Roy Nissany, Santino Ferrucci, Lando Norris and Antonio Fuoco.
Ferrucci in the Trident was first to head out on track followed by Markelov and Norris as they start the first part of qualifying. Norris jumped passed Markelov and Ferrucci round the track to be the first driver to set a lap first with a 1:23.473. During a second lap, Norris, Gelael and Aitken abandoned their second lap and dived into the pits.
Roberto Merhi in the MP Motorsport jumped up to third, splitting Gelael and Aitken. Markleov set his first proper lap and went over half a second to Norris’ time. Norris was on a lap to improve but a mistake at the exit of the swimming pool saw the Carlin driver damage his front wing. He stayed out on track with the damaged nose, affecting Albon who was on a flying lap. The stewards will be investigating the incident after the session.
The Trident of Ferrucci then shot up the timing sheets and gone fastest but soon the Russian of Markelov returned to the top. Maximilian Gunther completed a lap and split Markelov and Ferrucci in second.
Albon was flying around the circuit and quickly took first place away from the Russian Time, who was fighting to stay at front but failed to produce a lap time. Albon ended the first part of qualifying fastest and set the initial pace for Group B to beat with a 1:21.727.
Group B was next head on track which will contain Tadasuke Makino, Nyck de Vries, Nicholas Latifi, George Russell, Ralph Boschung, Nirei Fukuzumi, Luca Ghiotto, Arjun Maini, Sergio Sette Câmara and Louis Delétraz.
Maini’s Trident led the way as qualifying for Group B got underway, leading a queue to the track.
After the first initial laps were completed, it was de Vries who set the fastest time ahead of Maini, Russell and Sette Câmara with a 1:22.769.
Sette Câmara improved his time to set the fastest time in the group with a 1:21.901, but will need to improve his time to grab pole for the feature race tomorrow. But previous fastest in the group, de Vries improved his time to a 1:21.737, less than a thousandth of a second slower than Albon.
The Carlin of Câmara crashed into the wall at Sainte Devote with 45 seconds left remaining, ending the session with the red flag. He reported in that he hurt his hand from the impact but got out of the car safely.
With the session ended and de Vries failing to beat Albon’s time, it’ll be the DAMS driver from Group A who will start on pole for tomorrow’s feature race ahead of de Vries, Markelov, Sette Camara and Fuoco.
POS NO DRIVER NAT TEAM TIME Qualifying Group
1 5 Alexander Albon THA DAMS 1:21.727 A
2 4 Nyck de Vries NED Pertamina Prema Theodore Racing 1:21.737 B
3 1 Artem Markelov RUS Russian Time 1:21.834 A
4 18 Sergio Sette Camara BRZ Carlin Motorsport 1:21.901 B
5 21 Antonio Fuoco ITA Charouz Racing System 1:21.948 A
6 14 Luca Ghiotto ITA Campos Vexatec Racing 1:22.241 B
7 11 Maximilian Günther GER BWT Arden 1:22.194 A
8 16 Arjun Maini IND Trident 1:22.263 B
9 17 Santino Ferrucci USA Trident 1:22.408 A
10 10 Ralph Boschung SUI MP Motorsport 1:22.307 B
11 9 Roberto Merhi ESP MP Motorsport 1:22.569 A
12 2 Tadasuke Makino JPN Russian Time 1:22.420 B
13 7 Jack Aitken GBR ART Grand Prix 1:22.597 A
14 12 Nirei Fukuzumi JPN BWT Arden 1:22.707 B
15 3 Sean Gelael INO Pertamina Prema Theodore Racing 1:22.654 A
16 20 Louis Deletraz SUI Charouz Racing System 1:22.717 B
17 19 Lando Norris GBR Carlin Motorsport 1:22.663 A
18 8 George Russell GBR ART Grand Prix 1:22.977 B
19 15 Roy Nissany ISR Campos Vexatec Racing 1:22.796 A
20 6 Nicholas Latifi CAN DAMS 1:23.157 B