The F2 Qualifying 2025 Imola GP saw Beganovic secure his first F2 pole position. Montoya qualified in second with Martins completing the top three.
After a well deserved four week break following the Saudi Arabian GP, Formula 2 drivers are back on track for the first European qualifying session of the season.
First set of laps
With a track temperature of 39.9°C and an air temperature of 19.5°C, the F2 drivers had, for the first time since the beginning of the season, to adapt to cooler European weather. Adding to this, every team received brand new sets of supersoft tyres. These required teams to adapt and proved to be a challenge after the practice sessions.
The qualifying session was delayed by three minutes. The first flying lap belonged to Lindblad, who set the tone at 1:28.175. He hoped for good results after finishing second during the free practice, right behind Dunne.
Maini then set an impressive purple second sector. But that was quickly taken away by Dunne, whose flying lap topped the charts at 1:27.827. He was rapidly followed by Martins, making the two the only drivers succeeding at being under a time of 1:28.00.
Afterwards, Verschoor tried to set an aggressive lap but some heavy traffic slowed him down, and he ended up only reaching 11th place. At this time, the important question was whether the new supersofts could last two push laps. This was answered pretty quickly by Lindblad, who got provisional pole. The heavy traffic was still an issue, with every single car out on track, many drivers faced difficulties.
By the end of this first set of laps, Martins moved up to pole with an impressive 1:27.424 with Dunne only +0,382 behind. Many drivers decided to abort their laps due to the traffic or their tyres tearing down. All the while Fornaroli, the home contestant, qualified second.
By that point, the top 5 was as follows: Martins, Fornaroli, Dunne, Lindblad, and Browning.
Second set of laps and red flag
After everyone put on a new set of supersofts, with only ten minutes to go, and a slightly cooler track temperature (38.1), Montoya delivers an impressive first sector. Unfortunately, he is slower in the second sector, enabling Lindblad to go purple. While Montoya got pole, it only lasted a few seconds before Beganovic took it away with a remarkable 1:27.418 lap.
At the same time, on the other side of the track, at Tamburello, Maini ended up in the gravel and hit the wall pretty badly. He was fine, but given the zone and the need to extract the car, a red flag was raised.
With only five minutes to go, the drivers returned to the pits. Many of them were seen talking with engineers or looking at computer stats while staying in their cars.
After a few minutes, it was decided that the session would not resume. Therefore, the official first and second row goes as follows: Beganovic in pole position for the first time in his F2 rookie season, Montoya right behind, Martins in third, and Fornaroli in fourth. The noteworthy mentions are the two DAMS Lucas Oil cars, which qualified 10th for Crawford and 9th for Maini despite his crash. This put the French team on the first row for the reverse sprint grid.
Formula 2 will be back tomorrow at 2:15 pm local time, for the fourth sprint race of the season. A reverse grid that promises to be full of surprises and worth the watch.
Featured image credit: DAMS Lucas Oil
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