Australian Jack Doohan flew to his second pole position in the Formula 2 2022 season. To do so, he overtook Jüri Vips and Jehan Daruvala
Formula 2 is back on track! After a few weeks of absence since the Emilia-Romagna GP, the category took advantage of Barcelona to resume the 2022 championship. On Friday (20), the Spanish GP track, extremely well known to drivers, was the scene of a fierce fight for pole position. The winner was Jack Doohan.
For this, Doohan had to twice overtake Jehan Daruvala, who was a heavy challenger. Only, with eight minutes to go, the Indian retired to the pits and watched from afar what would happen. Doohan beat the time and suffered only one threat: from Jüri Vips.
The Estonian, who had with Red Bull a few hours earlier in Formula 1 free practice, crossed only 0s023 slower and in second place.
Frederik Vesti still managed to get ahead of Daruvala in third. Logan Sargeant was fifth, while Ayumu Iwasa, Théo Pourchaire, Jake Hughes, Calan Williams, and Felipe Drugovich rounded out the top-10. Enzo Fittipaldi finished 11th.
Drugovich's situation, however, is in danger. The Brazilian is under investigation for a suspicion that he blocked Pourchaire in what would be the Frenchman's last lap. Théo and Felipe are, in this order, leader and vice leader of F2 and separated by only two points.
GRANDE PRÊMIO has Eric Calduch on location to cover the action of the category at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and follows everythingLIVE and in REAL TIME. On Saturday, the F2 sprint race is scheduled for 12:40 pm [GMT-3].
Check out how the standings went:
Right after Formula 1 finished her day of activities at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona, it was Formula 2's turn to enjoy the track. With the clock already passing 6:30 pm local time, the ambient temperature was still above 25°C, but the track was slightly below 40°C. All in all, it was mild.
The category already started the session knowing that it was one name down. Ralph Boschung was not released by the medical team because of the neck injury he suffered in the race at Imole, and will miss the whole weekend.
As usually happens in sessions like this, of 30 minutes, the green flag already gave the track a chance to fill up quickly. Liam Lawson was the first to appear in front, but it was Jehan Daruvala who finished the initial round of laps in front: 1min29s512.
Clément Novalak appeared second, but his teammate Felipe Drugovich - who led the free practice - still had no timed fast lap. Like him. Jack Doohan, Richard Verschoor, and Marcus Armstrong took more than ten minutes.
As the latecomers went for their laps, yes, things changed. Doohan jumped to the front, while Drugovich emerged in second. It lasted only an instant: Daruvala came back next, and with 1min28s884, he was down to 1min29s and back in the lead.
Marino Sato came in for a good lap, but went straight through at turn nine and went off the track. What else was coming? Daruvala got out of his car and, with more than eight minutes to go, put an end to his day. Dennis Häuger was another to quit.
The next round of fast laps would come with less than five minutes to go. Doohan set a special lap again: 1min28s612. Thus, he retook the lead, while Frederik Vesti appeared in second place.
In the preparation for the last laps, Théo Pourchaire appeared on the radio complaining that Drugovich acted to block him on the track at a moment when he was behind time and the Brazilian was preparing to open lap.
Amidst the traffic, Ayumu Iwasa had to do some arm strength to avoid hitting a group that was slowing a little ahead. Jüri Vips, who was in the morning's TL1 F1 race with Red Bull, came out well towards the end and took second place. There was still time for Novalak to almost run off the track while attempting a fast lap.
But that was it. Pole-position for Jack Doohan, while Vips, Vesti, Daruvala, Logan Sargenat, Iwasa, Pourchaire, Jake Hughes, Calan Williams, and Drugovich rounded out the top-10.