F2 Saudi Arabia: Drugovich takes pole in fragmented qualifying

The MP Motorsport driver shot up into P1 from P13 after heading out for a final flying lap after the third red flag.  

Marcus Armstrong had been top of the timesheet for Hitech Grand Prix with a 1m41.050s, but after the third stoppage, opted not to head back on track.  

But as he, Campos Racing’s Ralph Boschung and Liam Lawson (Carlin), who were running in P2 and P3 respectively, stayed in the garage, Drugovich took the chance to go quicker with a 1m40.422s putting him on pole for Sunday’s race. 

Richard Verschoor slotted into P2 for Trident, with Jack Doohan in P3 with a 1m41.024s for Virtuosi Racing. 

Their late laps knocked Armstrong, Boschung and Lawson into P4, P5 and P6, with a disappointed Armstrong watching from the pitwall as he was knocked off the top spot. 

Jake Hughes will start on reverse-grid pole for Saturday’s sprint race, having finished in P10, with Juri Vips and Calan Williams in second and third. 

Ayumu Iwasa was first to set a quick lap, putting in a 1m43.548s, before Ralph Boschung topped the timesheet after the first run of laps with a 1m42.096s. 

Felipe Drugovich waited until after the rest of the field had completed their first lap to put in his time, going P2 with a 1m42.386s for MP Motorsport having topped practice earlier in the day. 

He was knocked from the top spot as the times tumbled, with Van Amersfoort Racing’s Jake Hughes leading after 10 minutes having set a 1m41.538s. 

Theo Pourchaire, ART Grand Prix

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

The session was red-flagged with 18 minutes remaining after Theo Pourchaire’s ART Grand Prix-run car caught fire.

Smoke had been plummeting from the rear around the previous lap, before he stopped at the side of the track and the fire became visible. 

It came after he ended up in the wall at Turn 24 during practice, prompting a red flag with eight minutes remaining and ending the session prematurely. 

Ralph Boschung was set to improve on his time when running resumed around 15 minutes later, setting two green sectors and running 0.4s up. 

But his attempt was thwarted when the red flag was waved again after Carlin’s Logan Sargeant hit the wall on the exit of Turn 17, returning the field to the pitlane with 12 minutes left on the clock. 

Marcus Armstrong went quickest once running resumed, setting a 1m41.050s after going purple in sectors two and three. 

Boschung had his lap once again thwarted as he was close to going top, narrowly avoiding a collision with ART’s Frederik Vesti at Turn 27 as the Mercedes junior prepared for a flying lap.

The Campos driver was forced to take avoiding action and missed out on the top spot by 0.007s. The incident will be investigated after the session. 

There was a third red flag with five minutes remaining, but it appeared to be caused by a GPS alarm rather than an on track incident. 

Enzo Fittipaldi could face a penalty after crossing the white line at the pit exit, while Amaury Cordeel is under investigation for not heeding the warning flags after Sargeant’s accident.  

Marcus Armstrong is also under investigation after he was released into path of Jack Doohan in the pitlane on the second restart. 

Cem Bolukbasi also crashed in practice at Turn 11, 20 minutes into running. The Charouz Racing System driver was taken to King Fahad Armed Forces Hospital for precautionary checks, and missed qualifying as a result. 

2022 FIA F2 Saudia Arabia: Full qualifying result

Cla	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	Felipe Drugovich	MP Motorsport	1'40.422
2	Richard Verschoor	Trident	1'40.648	0.226
3	Jack Doohan	Virtuosi Racing	1'41.024	0.602
4	Marcus Armstrong	HitechGP	1'41.050	0.628
5	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	1'41.057	0.635
6	Liam Lawson	Carlin	1'41.142	0.720
7	Ayumu Iwasa	Nissan e.Dams	1'41.194	0.772
8	Calan Williams	Trident	1'41.469	1.047
9	Jüri Vips	HitechGP	1'41.533	1.111
10	Jake Hughes	Van Amersfoort Racing	1'41.538	1.116
11	Dennis Hauger	Prema Powerteam	1'41.710	1.288
12	Clement Novalak	MP Motorsport	1'41.710	1.288
13	Roy Nissany	Nissan e.Dams	1'41.971	1.549
14	Marino Sato	Virtuosi Racing	1'42.178	1.756
15	Jehan Daruvala	Prema Powerteam	1'42.181	1.759
16	Enzo Fittipaldi	Charouz Racing System	1'42.520	2.098
17	Frederik Vesti	ART Grand Prix	1'42.905	2.483
18	Olli Caldwell	Campos Racing	1'43.120	2.698
19	Logan Sargeant	Carlin	1'43.260	2.838
20	Amaury Cordeel	Van Amersfoort Racing	1'44.437	4.015
21	Theo Pourchaire	ART Grand Prix	1'44.736	4.314
22	Cem Bolukbasi	Charouz Racing System
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