Jak Crawford held on to provisional F2 pole for feature race in Zandvoort from Dennis Hauger and Frederik Vesti.
It was a feisty start to F2 qualifying in Zandvoort when Virtuosi’s Jack Doohan had a hard time behind ART’s Victor Martins. The Australian tried hard to get by him but the Frenchman did not give enough room even on the main straight.
The erratic driving was put under investigation by the stewards, as Hitech GP’s Jak Crawford led the way after a 1m21.210s lap ahead of MP Motorsport’s Dennis Hauger and Prema’s Frederik Vesti, with Doohan slotting in fourth from Prema’s Oliver Bearman.
The second run started on a sour note for Crawford who had damage on the front wing when they all pulled out of their boxes to get out. There was an investigation on board for Carlin’s Enzo Fittipaldi for pitlane infringement.
Replays showed Trident’s Clement Novalak on the path of Crawford which was put under investigation as the session was red flagged after a crash for MP Motorsport’s Jehan Daruvala. He seemingly spun at the exit of Turn 3.
Even before they could give it a go on re-start and set a lap time, Van Amersfoort’s Juan Manuel Correa beached himself on the gravel for another red flag moment. The American Ecuadorian had a purple first sector before beaching it in Sector 2.
There were few who managed get a lap in but some who were looking fast couldn’t complete theirs. The second re-start was short-lived yet again after Novalak had a barrier moment to throw debris on track which resulted in another red flag.
The session ended under it with Crawford holding on to provisional pole for feature F2 race in Zandvoort from Hauger who seemingly had more pace. Vesti was third from Carlin’s Zane Maloney who improved in the previous run to be fourth.
Doohan was fifth from Bearman as Correa slotted in seventh despite the off. Martins ended up eighth from Hitech GP’s Isack Hadjar as ART’s Theo Pourchaire was 10th to secure the sprint race pole for Saturday’s F1 race from Campos’ Kush Maini.
#F2 #DutchGP Another RED FLAG and that's it. No time left. Qualifying results for the FeatureRace on Sunday. The top 10 will be reversed as the startinggrid for the SprintRace tomorrow. #MsportXtra @F2Inside @CMCZtweets @f1dutchgp pic.twitter.com/cdyKGtnMQm
— #MsportXtra © (@MsportXtra) August 25, 2023
UPDATE: Following the conclusion of the Qualifying session at Zandvoort, Van Amersfoort Racing driver Richard Verschoor has been handed a grid penalty. The Dutchman was judged to have impeded Rodin Carlin’s Zane Maloney on the apex of Turn 8, with the Bajan driver on a push lap.
After examining evidence following the session and hearing from both team and driver, the Stewards decided that Verschoor impeded Maloney unnecessarily despite the VAR driver attempting to get out of the way. As a result, Verschoor has been assigned a three-place grid penalty. It drops the VAR driver from P14 on the Sprint Race grid to P17. It promotes Ralph Boschung, Jehan Daruvala and Arthur Leclerc up one position each on the grid for Saturday’s race.