Carlin’s Sergio Sette Camara took pole in the 2018 FIA Formula 2 Championship at Hungaroring after his late flying lap when most of rivals were already in the pits.
The qualifying session saw some split decisions among teams and drivers which eventually played in the hands of Camara as the Brazilian clocked the fastest time of the session while his rivals were already in the pits.
ART’s Jack Aitken seemed in control after taking provisional pole with a 1m27.430s. The Renault junior dived into the pits with four minutes remaining and only handful of drivers circulating on the circuit.
One of them was Camara and he managed to better Aitken’s time by 0.430s to clock a 1m27.400s with under two minutes remaining to grab his first pole of the season – a fine result especially after the injury problems it faced in Monaco.
Camara’s late lap meant Prema’s Nyck de Vries’ (1m27.631s) front-row position was also gone with the Dutchman in third but he is crucially ahead of championship leader ART’s George Russell (1m27.762s).
Campos’ Luca Ghiotto’s (1m27828s) late lap also helped him to move ahead of Carlin’s Lando Norris (1m27.864s) in fifth as Russian Time’s Artem Markelov (1m27.957s) slotted in seventh from Trident’s Arjun Maini (1m27.958s).
The Top 10 was rounded out by MP Motorsport’s Ralph Boschung (1m27.973s) and Charouz Racing’s Louis Deletraz (1m28.032s) as the ultra-tight session saw seven different teams inside the Top 10 and the Top 16 covered within a second of Camara.
Race winners Charouz’s Antonio Fuoco and DAMS’ Alexander Albon had a tough session to be only 12th and 13th respectively, as F2 newcomer Alessio Lorandi in the Trident was 17th – the Italian managed to beat handful of drivers already in his first time.
Position 11-20: Nirei Fukuzumi, Fuoco, Albon, Nicholas Latifi, Maximilian Gunther, Roy Nissany, Lorandi, Sean Gelael, Roberto Merhi and Tadaduke Makino.