Silverstone F2: Ferrari junior Ilott becomes first repeat polesitter of 2020

UNI-Virtuosi's Ilott claimed his second pole of the year with a 1m39.062s lap, which denied Renault junior Christian Lundgaard his maiden pole position by just over a tenth of a second.

Lundgaard put ART Grand Prix at the top of the timesheets after the first qualifying runs, but Ilott was able to displace the Danish driver with an impressive late effort.

Ex-Red Bull junior Ilott languished down in 12th place after his opening run, but found over six tenths on his second run to rise to the top.

His pole position was confirmed when DAMS' Sean Gelael spun at Copse and brought out yellow flags that denied the likes of Ilott's team-mate Guanyu Zhou - who had set the fastest first sector - a chance at completing their laps.

Ilott was forced to start from the pitlane in last Saturday's feature race at the circuit when he stalled from the front row at the start of the formation lap.

He battled back to fifth place with a damaged car and would have taken the championship lead on the next day, had he not spun out of second place in the sprint race.

Series rookie Lundgaard (below) will start from the front row of the grid for the first time in his short F2 career, while Williams F1 reserve driver Jack Aitken will line-up from a season's best third place.

DAMS' Dan Ticktum, who earned his maiden F2 victory in last Sunday's reversed-grid sprint race, matched his best qualifying effort of the year in fourth place.

Series veteran Luca Ghiotto was fifth fastest for Hitech Grand Prix with his 2019 team-mate Zhou rounding out the top six.

Ex-Force India tester Nikita Mazepin will line-up seventh on the grid at the circuit where he took a dominant first F2 win last Saturday.

Ferrari junior Mick Schumacher topped practice for the first time, but could only manage eighth place on the grid after running slightly wide at the exit of Becketts on his final flying lap.

Haas F1 reserve driver Louis Deletraz (Charouz Racing System) was ninth ahead of Red Bull junior Yuki Tsunoda (Carlin), who rounded out the top 10.

Championship leader Robert Shwartzman continued to struggle at Silverstone with the 11th fastest time for Prema, just ahead of last week's first-time polesitter Felipe Drugovich (MP Motorsport).

Lundgaard's ART GP team-mate Marcus Armstrong slumped to 19th in the session, with his fastest time over 1.2s adrift of Ilott's benchmark.

Silverstone F2 starting grid

Pos	Driver	Team	Gap
1	Callum Ilott	UNI-Virtuosi	1m39.062s
2	Christian Lundgaard	ART Grand Prix	0.115s
3	Jack Aitken	Campos Racing	0.216s
4	Dan Ticktum	DAMS	0.264s
5	Luca Ghiotto	Hitech Grand Prix	0.300s
6	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi	0.332s
7	Nikita Mazepin	Hitech Grand Prix	0.348s
8	Mick Schumacher	Prema Racing	0.386s
9	Louis Deletraz	Charouz Racing System	0.412s
10	Yuki Tsunoda	Carlin	0.432s
11	Robert Shwartzman	Prema Racing	0.463s
12	Felipe Drugovich	MP Motorsport	0.464s
13	Pedro Piquet	Charouz Racing System	0.559s
14	Marino Sato	Trident	0.617s
15	Sean Gelael	DAMS	0.721s
16	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	0.728s
17	Nobuharu Matsushita	MP Motorsport	0.899s
18	Artem Markelov	BWT HWA RACELAB	1.032s
19	Marcus Armstrong	ART Grand Prix	1.237s
20	Giuliano Alesi	BWT HWA RACELAB	1.423s
21	Roy Nissany	Trident	1.553s
22	Guilherme Samaia	Campos Racing	1.999s