Ferrari junior driver Oliver Bearman has been restored to the front row for Sunday’s Formula 2 feature race at Imola after his best qualifying time was reinstated.
The Prema driver was one of several, including his team mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who fell down the order after qualifying due to losing lap times for track limit infringements.
McLaren junior driver Gabriel Bortoleto took pole position for the feature race, five hundredths of a second quicker than Bearman, with Red Bull junior Isack Hadjar in third ahead of Antonelli in fourth. However after the chequered flag fell several drivers had their best lap times struck out for exceeding track limits, including the two Prema drivers, Bearman and Antonelli, who fell to 16th and 18th, respectively.
However, almost two hours after the provisional classification was published, the stewards issued a final record of all 14 lap times deleted during the session. While Bearman and Antonelli both lost multiple laps deleted, neither of their quickest lap times were among those deleted.
The FIA then issued an amended provisional classification for qualifying confirming they had moved up the grid. As a result, Bearman regains his front row start for Sunday’s feature race, with Antonelli set to start behind his team mate and Hadjar in fourth.
Bearman therefore gains his best starting position of the season so far. Despite securing pole in qualifying in Jeddah, Bearman withdrew from the event before the sprint race in order to substitute for Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz Jnr in the grand prix.
“I was looking forward to starting from the back rows for another weekend,” Bearman told media including RaceFans after qualifying. “Because so far in F2, I’ve only started at the back. So it was looking like a long weekend and I’m glad that the lap got reinstated.”
Enzo Fittipaldi will start Saturday’s sprint race from reverse-grid pole, with Williams junior driver Franco Colapinto alongside him on the front row.
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Formula 2
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