Dennis Hauger secured pole position for the Red Bull Ring feature race after Isack Hadjar suffered an apparent engine failure.
Campos driver Hadjar took provisional pole shortly before pulling into the pits with smoke billowing from the rear of his car.
Hauger was able to beat Hadjar’s early best time to take pole, with Joshua Duerksen just eight-thousandths of a second slower in second and Gabriel Bortoleto in third.
After the earlier F3 qualifying session had taken place in cool, cloudy conditions, the sun emerged for Formula 2’s grid-deciding session. When the green light appeared at the end of the pit lane, championship leader Paul Aron was so eager to head out on track that he appeared to ignore the directions of his Hitech pit crew and peeled out in front of the queue of cars in the fast lane.
Taylor Barnard stalled his AIX car as he pulled up in reaction to Aron’s move. The stewards later announced the Hitech driver will be investigated over the incident after the session.
At the end of the initial flying lap runs, Red Bull junior Isack Hadjar was quickest of all having posted a 1’15.828 with Aron sitting in second two tenths behind and Dennis Hauger in third for MP Motorsport. But as Hadjar returned to the pit lane, smoke began pouring out of the back of his Campos. Hadjar was forced to park up before reaching his pit box and was unable to participate in the remainder of the session.
Hadjar’s problems opened the door for his rivals to beat his time when they headed out for a final run on low fuel at the end of the session. Hauger promptly did by improving to a 1’15.487 to take provisional pole position, with Joshua Duerksen just 0.008s away from Hauger’s best time to take second.
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Aron tried to improve but he ran wide at the exit of turn six, running onto the gravel and spinning to the inside of the track. With gravel on the circuit, it seemed no one else was able to improve in the final minutes. That secured pole position for Hauger, only just ahead of Duerksen.
McLaren junior driver Gabriel Bortoleto took third ahead of Williams junior Franco Colapinto with Aron under investigation in fifth, with Taylor Barnard behind. Hadjar fell to fifth with his problem, with Pepe Marti in eighth.
Oliver Bearman took eighth but is under investigation for an unsafe release, while Prema team mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli could only manage 16th. Kush Maini claimed 10th and, with it,…
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