Leonardo Fornaroli took his first FIA F2 pole in Bahrain from Victor Martins, as Rafael Camara took the top spot in F3.
F2 –
It was a direct fight between Leonardo Fornaroli and Victor Martins for top spot, with the former earning his first Formula 2 Pole Position in the end. The Invicta Racing driver secured P1 with a 1:44.008 to pip the Frenchman by over a tenth, while Hitech TGR’s Luke Browning earned third position at the chequered flag.
After several build laps, ART’s Martins set the early pace and benchmark to beat, going to the top with a 1:45.110. Rodin Motorsport driver Alexander Dunne was just 0.002s down on that effort to go second but they were both blown out of the water by Fornaroli, who laid down a 1:44.642 for the top spot.
Teammate Roman Stanek made use of a slipstream to the line to go fourth for Invicta, ahead of PREMA Racing duo Gabriele Minì and Sebastián Montoya. Half of the field opted to wait and as the first 11 returned to the pitlane, the others joined the circuit for their first attempts.
Josep María Martí was the quickest of the second group, going up to P2 for Campos Racing and 0.223s down on the provisional pole sitter. Richard Verschoor was able to go just behind in third for MP Motorsport ahead of Browning, Martins and Dunne. With eight minutes left of the session, everyone rejoined the circuit for their final attempts of the day.
Martins improved to re-take the top spot with a 1:44.163 and he was comfortably clear, but Fornaroli denied him once more, going back to P1 to earn his maiden F2 pole position. Browning went third-quickest in the end, ahead of Dunne and Stanek in the top five. Verschoor, Sami Meguetounif of TRIDENT, Van Amersfoort Racing’s Rafael Villagómez, Dino Beganovic for Hitech TGR and Joshua Duerksen rounded out the top 10.
Result: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1910700698422935637
F3 –
Rafael Câmara was the one to beat once again, as the TRIDENT driver took his second consecutive Pole Position of the season, beating out Callum Voisin in an action-packed Sakhir Qualifying. A closely fought encounter between the pair, the Brazilian’s late 1:49.214 was enough for P1, while the Rodin Motorsport driver ended up 0.156s down in second, with TRIDENT’s Charlie Wurz in third.
It was Nikola Tsolov that set the early benchmark though of a 1:50.506, putting the Campos Racing driver 0.169s clear of DAMS Lucas Oil’s Christian Ho, with James Wharton just behind in P3 for ART Grand Prix. The entire field was back in the pit lane with 18 minutes left in the session, but after a quick change of tyres, they were out on track for the second set of push laps on their new rubber.
There were plenty of improvements and on this occasion, it was Voisin on provisional pole, thanks to a 1:49.882, putting him just 0.023s ahead of MP Motorsport’s Alessandro Giusti. Câmara went to third ahead Tsolov this time around, before the drivers returned to the pit lane to put on another new set of new tyres, ahead of a third and final attempt.
Setting his lap earlier than the rest of the field, Câmara went to P1 with a 1:49.214. Voisin set the fastest first sector but could not overhaul the TRIDENT driver and ended up second, 0.156s down. Charlie Wurz left it late to make it two TRIDENT cars in the top three, while Ho finished fourth for DAMS ahead of MP’s Bruno del Pino.
Tuukka Taponen was the lead ART driver in P6 ahead of Noah Stromsted, while Tsolov wound up in P8, with Giusti in ninth. AIX Racing’s Freddie Slater was 10th, in front of the Hitech TGR pairing of Martinius Stenshorne and Joshua Dufek, who rounded out the top 12. This means Dufek will lead an all-Hitech front row when we reverse the grid in the Sprint Race
Result: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1910687281331007881
[The story is as per press release]
