Aron wins pole as six-thousandths of a second covers top three · RaceFans

Formula 2 championship leader Paul Aron secured pole position for the Barcelona feature race by just two-thousandths of a second ahead of Jak Crawford.

The Hitech driver continued his strong form in a remarkably close qualifying session where Franco Colapinto took third, just six-thousandths of a second off pole. Gabriel Bortoleto competed the second row with a time five-hundredths of a second off Aron’s mark.

Following the earlier F3 qualifying session which was held under a sunny sky, the 22 Formula 2 drivers were treated to the similarly sunny conditions for their crucial qualifying session.

The initial runs only saw a handful of drivers complete a timed lap before the session was interrupted by a red flag for Taylor Barnard running off the track at turn nine and crashing into the tyre barrier. Once the AIX car was cleared and the session resumed, those who had not yet set a time was effectively out of sync and had missed out on their first flying laps.

Once the full field had completed their first flying laps, Red Bull junior Isack Hadjar was sat on provisional pole with a 1’25.205, a tenth of a second ahead of Mercedes junior Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Behind them, championship leader Aron was third with Zane Maloney in fourth.

The final runs saw virtually the entire field improve, Aron going quickest of all with a 1’24.766. Jak Crawford came within two-thousandths of a second to move up to second, while Williams junior Franco Colapinto promoted to third with his final push lap.

None of the other drivers could trouble the top three in the closing minutes, meaning that Aron further extended his championship lead with pole position for Sunday’s feature race and two bonus points. Crawford secured a front row start in second, with Colapinto cementing third on the grid.

McLaren junior Bortoleto took fourt, with Antonelli in fifth ahead of Ritomo Miyata, Josh Duerksen and Juan Manuel Correa. Alpine juniors Victor Martins and Kush Maini completed the top ten, with Hadjar devastated to miss out on a top 10 start in 11th.

Maini will start on reverse grid pole for Saturday’s sprint race ahead of Martins with Correa starting in third.

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Formula 2 Spanish qualifying results