Formula 2: Jeddah pole win Victor Martin

For the city ring near the circuit in Jeddah, the characteristics are not quite ordinary, as this is a very fast circuit, so the capabilities of the cars and the skill of the drivers are fully reflected here. And to fly close to the barriers, you also need courage.

It often happens that this quality is inherent in young racers, and today Formula 2 debutants are in no way inferior to those who have been in this series for more than one season.

Oliver Bierman, a Prema driver and student of the Ferrari Racing Academy, was the first to show a more or less representative result, but Victor Martin, another debutant, soon blocked his time with a lap time of 1:42.766. Kush Maini moved up to the second line of the protocol, for whom this is also only the second qualifying in Formula 2.

When nearly half of the session fell behind, Martin’s result was improved by several hundredths by Arthur Leclerc, the Ferrari driver’s younger brother. But then the session was interrupted by red flags due to the departure of Richard Vershore. The Dutchman failed to hold onto the car entering turn 22, and although he managed to avoid contact with the barriers, the engine stalled and the races were abandoned.

While the marshals evacuated the Van Amersfoort Racing team car that had stopped in the relegation zone, everyone returned to the pits.

Races resumed with 15 minutes left before the end of qualifying and the drivers continued to battle for pole.

Frederic Vesti was the first to improve Leclerc’s result, then Birman moved up to the front row, but Martin immediately pushed him out and immediately completed the lap 0.7 seconds faster! It was a serious bid for pole position and it would be very difficult to top such an impressive result.

Further events developed in such a way that at least everyone lost such an opportunity: Arthur Leclerc’s car stopped on the track. There were red flags and race management decided not to resume qualifying. On video replay it was clear that the DAMS team car had steering problems.

For example, Victor Martin will start Sunday’s Formula 2 race from pole position for the first time in his career. And in tomorrow’s sprint, Jack Crawford, the American rider of the Hitech team, will start from the first position and show the 10th result. Please note that on Saturdays in Formula 2, a partially reversed starting order is applied.

Qualifying results