The Formula 2 championship returns to the streets of Monaco for the 5th round of the season. The drivers take to the historic track for the 2024 F2 qualifying and are split into two groups, categorised by their racing numbers and organised into odd vs even.
Trident driver Richard Verschoor claimed his first ever pole in The Formula 2 Championship, beating his rivals to the front of the field for the Monaco feature race.
Group A
The 11 drivers in Group A were as follows, with one driver from each team: O’Sullivan, Antonelli, Miyata, Correa, Bortoleto, Colapinto, Fittipaldi, Cordeel, Hadjar, Verschoor, and Dürksen.
Out of the pits, the drivers were keen to build their all important tyre temperatures and give themselves the best platform to launch an attack and get the most out of their cars around Monte Carlo.
After incidents in the earlier Formula 3 Qualifying session led to drivers losing out to untimely red flags, all 22 of the Formula 2 are eager to set their times without interference.
Gabriel Bortoleto was the first to set a time but was quickly displaced by Zak O’Sullivan, who set a 1:23.1s. Those behind couldn’t challenge him on the first attempt, Mercedes Junior Driver Kimi Antonelli only 5th with eight minutes to go.
The yellows were out at the halfway mark after a painfully scary incident with a slow going Ritomo Miyata hugging the inside right barrier inside the tunnel and a fast approaching Hadjar just behind. The Red Bull junior snapped to the left just in time to avoid colliding with an almost stationary Miyata in what would certainly have been a huge accident.
Antonelli set a purple first sector before being heavily impeded coming out of the tunnel and giving up his lap, his next effort only worthy of 7th on the timesheets and a frustrating show for the young Italian.
Final Laps
Richard Verschoor took top spot from his colleagues with a benchmark of 1:21.283s. Behind him came Isack Hadjar and the MP Motorsport man Franco Colapinto, both drivers securing very solid starting positions to carry throughout the rest of the weekend.
After an electric start, Zak O’Sullivan dropped dramatically in the closing minutes of the first part of the 2024 Monaco F2 qualifying.
Just behind Colapinto, Antonelli fought back to finish 4th, separating his closest championship rivals with Bortoleto behind.
Group B
The other 11 drivers made up group B, with three out of the top four drivers in the championship in this session: Martins, Bearman, Maloney, Crawford, Maini, Hauger, Villagómez, Aron, Martí, Staněk, and Barnard.
After a slow start to his campaign in the 2024 F2 season, Victor Martins needs a good weekend to offer some resurgence to his championship dreams for this year. He came into qualifying after dominating the first practice session, a certain confidence boost for the Frenchman.
Championship leader Zane Maloney wastes no time in getting up to speed, the Rodin driver looking to set the pace early but disrupted by the first red flag of the 2024 F2 qualifying.
The drivers peel into the pits as a stationary Rafael Villagómez climbs out of his car, the VAR driver having a heavy crash into turn one and bringing the session to a halt.
The session restarts with just under 10 minutes to go and its all to do for the 11 drivers in Group B.
The threat of further delay looms as sporadic yellow flags are brought out, but the session remains green as the drivers fight for top spot.
The times tumble as the drivers get into a rhythm and get up to temperature, key championship protagonists carving away at their lap times and keeping it clean.
Final Runs
With 2 minutes to go, the other Trident of Roman Staněk sits pretty at the top of the table securing a provisional Trident front row lockout.
Unfortunately for the Czech driver, he had a brush with the wall on his final run, ending his session as he crawled back to the pits and leaving him a sitting duck for the faster drivers behind.
Rookie driver Paul Aron sits second in the championship standings coming into the Monaco race weekend and had a slow start to the qualifying session. He was the last man to cross the line, setting a purple first sector and to everyone’s surprise pulling a monster lap out of nowhere to take P2 in the group.
Victor Martins threw everything he had into the final lap, edging ever closer to the barriers and pushing the limits of the Circuit De Monaco. He crossed the line to take P1 in Group B, but could not beat the time set in Group A by Richard Verschoor.
Verschoor remains the quickest driver and he takes pole position in Monaco, leading the field away for the first time in his Formula 2 career.
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