Zane Maloney took a close feature FIA F2 race pole in Monza in a scrappy session, as Leonardo Fornaroli had pole in F3.
F2:
Zane Maloney left it late in the day to seal Pole Position at a dramatic Monza Qualifying. The Rodin Motorsport driver completed a lap of 1:32.160 to win out in a battle with fellow title contenders Isack Hadjar and Paul Aron. It was a slow start to the session as while the rest of the field chose to stay in the pit lane, Roman Stanek decided to go out on track. The Trident driver completed a lap of 1:34.992 just as most of the grid made their way out on the circuit.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli was next to set a lap, and he lowered the benchmark to 1:32.941, with Enzo Fittipaldi going closest to the PREMA Racing driver’s time in second, 0.256s off top spot. Practice pace-setter Maloney had been on a good lap and was about to cross the line but the Red Flags were waved with the marshals needing to clear a polystyrene board from the track.
The session resumed with 16 minutes left on the clock, but as the times started to pour in once more, the Red Flags were out for a second time. This time it was Gabriel Bortoleto stuck in the gravel at the second Lesmo. The Invicta Racing driver had not set a lap and will now start both races from the back of the grid, a blow to his title challenge.
The action resumed with seven minutes left to go as the drivers poured out of the pit lane, with just eight out of the 22 having set representative lap times. A flurry of laps followed soon after with Hadjar going to the top of the timesheets on a 1:32.249, while Aron followed him across the line to go second. But Maloney was on a charge and went fastest in the middle sector before beating the Campos Racing driver to the top spot by 0.089s.
The drivers pushed on for a second set of laps and while there were some improvements, no one could match Maloney’s time, giving him his first Formula 2 Pole Position. Hadjar will join him on the front row with Aron in third while Dennis Hauger took fourth for MP Motorsport. Victor Martins was fifth for ART Grand Prix while Antonelli ended up in P6.
Josep María Martí was seventh for Campos ahead of Oliver Bearman, with Amaury Cordeel in P9 for Hitech Pulse-Eight. Fittipaldi ended up with the 10th fastest time for Van Amersfoort Racing and will line up on reverse grid pole in Saturday’s Sprint Race.
Result: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1829528783927599550
F3:
GROUP A –
The even-numbered cars lined up to get on track first, including the top three in the Drivers’ Championship. There was just one time on the board with just over five minutes to go, though Max Esterson’s 2:10.419 was not a push lap as everyone began to play for track position. Contact between Laurens van Hoepen and Kacper Sztuka out of Lesmo 1 left debris on the track and both with damage, leading to a Red Flag.
Both recovered to the pitlane but were left out of the running as a result of the incident. The first segment resumed with five minutes to go and everyone else was straight back out onto circuit. Esterson headed the queue without a tow and recorded the first proper lap to beat with a 1:40.558 but that was beaten immediately.
Luke Browning went quicker but his time was bettered by Mari Boya and Joshua Dufek, with the latter taking provisional top spot with a 1:38.832. Championship leader Leonardo Fornaroli wound up seventh on his first attempt, seven-tenths down on the time to beat.
The Italian reset and on his second and final effort, he recorded a 1:38.287 to go quickest of all while title rival Gabriele Minì moved himself up to second at the chequered flag ahead of the other Trident of Santiago Ramos in P3. Having caught Esterson ahead before he could complete his second lap, Browning backed off and had time for one last attempt but could only manage seventh in the group.
GROUP B –
The odd-numbered half of the grid followed suit in waiting before getting out on track for their first attempts. ART Grand Prix were the first to blink and sent Nikola Tsolov and Christian Mansell out in front, with the rest of the pack trailing the pair out of the pitlane.
Mansell had overtaken his teammate but then backed off in hopes of gaining a tow as the clock ticked to three minutes remaining. With nobody obliging, the Australian headed up the train for the first attempts but backed off before he completed the lap as others followed suit.
Martinius Stenshorne wasn’t one of them though and recorded the first time to beat on a 1:39.273. That was beaten by fellow McLaren Driver Development talent Alex Dunne, who went provisionally quickest in Group B with a 1:38.818. Everyone had time for one final attempt, but nobody could beat the MP driver’s effort, though no one was close to Fornaroli’s time from Group A.
Sami Meguetounif wound up second in Group B with Sebastián Montoya third for Campos Racing. With the results aggregated together, Fornaroli will line up on Pole for Sunday’s Feature Race ahead of Dunne on the front row in P2.
Minì will go from third with Meguetounif in P4 on the second row alongside him. Santiago Ramos rounds out the top five, while Tim Tramnitz will go from reverse grid pole in the Sprint Race on Saturday.
Part 1: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1829508996824469579
Part 2: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1829513890637513169
[Note: The story is as per press release]
