Sargeant flies, beats Iwasa and wins Formula 2 pole in France. Drugovich is 4th

The Formula 2 weekend in Paul Ricard, with the French Grand Prix, is a hot and boiling asphalt amidst a punishing July in temperatures across Europe. On the track, the fight is also heated. Among the many stripes on the Le Castellet track, Logan Sargeant flew through the air to take pole position for Sunday's main race.

The difference was very small in favor of the American. The Florida native clocked 1min43s871 in an absolutely electrifying end to qualifying. By only 0s006 he beat Ayumu Iwasa, who didn't have time to set the last fast lap. Thus, he won his second pole-position in the last three rounds.

Since the drivers had to set a fast lap and slow down considerably to cool down their tires for the next lap, before attempting another flying lap, drivers and teams had a dramatic end to qualifying. Some drivers were unable to put in a final fast lap, as was the case with Iwasa, who had led up to that point. Even so, only Sargeant managed to beat him.

Frederik Vesti took third place, followed by Felipe Drugovich. The championship leader had the advantage against the runner-up Théo Pourchaire, who came sixth - Sargeant, however, has everything to get even closer to the duo. Jack Doohan was between the two. Jüri Vips, Marcus Armstrong, Liam Lawson, and Jehan Daruvala rounded out the top-10. So, according to the reverse gird system, Daruvala takes pole for the sprint race. Enzo Fittipaldi leaves in 14th place.

GRANDE PRÊMIO follows LIVE and IN REAL TIME all the activities of the Formula 1 French GP weekend. On Saturday, the F2 sprint race is scheduled for 1 pm (GMT-3).

Check out how the qualifying went:

A very hot day. Even though late afternoon was in the area at the time of qualifying - 6:30pm local time - and the track had indeed cooled down a bit, the asphalt continued to exceed the 48°C mark. A challenge for drivers and tires, no doubt about it.

At the right time, the green flag was raised and drivers were on the track for the first round of fast laps. Théo Pourchaire had a precious chance to get closer to the leader Felipe Drugovich using the home race, but had ended the free practice earlier in the day in a spin. Jüri Vips had been the leader, while Frederik Vesti had problems and made the ART race against time to be able to participate in the activity.

Until the first round of laps came. Jack Doohan took the lead with a lap time of 1min44s953. Only he and Vips, in second, were within 1min44s. Ayumu Iwasa was third, followed by Richard Verschoor, Logan Sargeant, Enzo Fittipaldi, Théo Pourchaire, Marino Sato, Marcus Armstrong, and Jehan Daruvala. Drugovich had the 12th fastest time.

Unlike what usually happens, no one came in for a second effort. Immediately after crossing the line that defined the end of the lap, the drivers took their foot off the gas pedal to just slowly take their cars through a non-competitive spin to cool down the car. The reason, of course, was the heat: no one wanted to over-wear tires and the set-up in general.

Some went to the pit-lane to make necessary adjustments before the decisive lap, while most waited to open another lap. In the second lap search, Pourchaire came out ahead and even improved his time, but far from entering the fight for pole. Logan Sargeant was the one who clocked 1min44s599 and took the lead, followed by Iwasa and Pourchaire. Drugovich also improved his time and painted himself in eighth place.

Then, yes, everyone went to the pits. It was time to prepare for the final quest for pole. When the cars started to take the track again, trouble. Dennis Hauger showed up with a very slow car and pulled over in the escape area. As there were only 7 minutes to go, the red flag was brought out and everything was interrupted so that the drivers had time to do at least one more fast lap.

After five minutes of interruption, the green flag was brought out and the cars were back on track. Given the size of the track and the need to cool down the car, the likelihood was that several drivers would only have one fast lap to offer with the remaining time. So let the best take pole - and the 10th best take the lead in the sprint race, according to the inverted grid system.

Drugovich was the first to go and jumped to the front with a very fast last sector, but Vesti was second later and improved his time. In fact, as they crossed the line, the drivers already in contention were pushing Felipe back.

Iwasa overtook Vesti and, with 1min43s877, took the lead. Vesti was 0s106s behind and occupied the same tenth as Doohan and Sargeant, third and fourth. Pourchaire was fifth, followed by Drugovich, Vips, Liam Lawson, Marcus Armstrong, and Verschoor.

The race was on to cool down in time to open another fast lap. Drugovich made it without a problem, but his daughter coming up behind him brought drama with her. Iwasa couldn't open, but most of the others could.

So, once again, Drugovich. The championship leader crossed in third place and was out of pole position contention. Vesti didn't beat Iwasa's lap, but Sargeant did. The Carlin driver put in 1min43s871 to take the lead by 0s006 in an electrifying end to qualifying.

Behind him were Iwasa, Vesti, Drugovich, Doohan, Pourchaire, Vips, Armstrong, Lawson, and Daruvala, who took pole for the sprint race because of a top-10 inversion.

F2, GP of France, Paul Ricard, Main race starting grid