Formula 2: Jack Doohan wins pole position in Hungary

Qualifying in Formula 2 took place under difficult conditions: on the one hand, the track had already dried up after the recent rain and everyone left the pits on slicks, on the other hand, it could not be ruled out that damp areas had remained somewhere, forcing the drivers to be more focused and attentive, especially at the start of the session.

In the first laps everyone was very careful, but then the speeds picked up sharply, and Arthur Leclerc was the first to show a fairly representative time, but his result was almost immediately improved by Frederic Vesti, and Jack Duane was well behind him.

At that point it started to drizzle again in some corners and it was interesting how further events would develop: will someone be able to improve the results or will the rain mess up all the cards? Frederik Vesti was able to complete the round in less than 1 minute. In 27.931 seconds, Viktor Marten moved to the second line of the protocol, Theo Purscher to third, Enzo Fittipaldi to fourth, before the session was interrupted by red flags due to Roman Stanek’s accident at turn 11.

When everyone returned to the pits, almost 20 minutes remained until the end of the half-hour session. Presumably everyone was worried in the first place whether it was going to rain or not? But it seems the alarm was false, the sun came out from behind the clouds again and when Czech pilot Trident’s crashed car was evacuated from the side of the road, the races resumed.

Some riders went quite fast right away, Jack Duane pushed Purscher from third place, but so far no one has even managed to come close to the interim pole time of the Danish rider of the Prema team and the leader of the individual classification.

On his next lap Vesti was able to improve his own result and although Purscher showed a decent time and moved up to second place, he still did not reach the driver of the Mercedes youth program. Missed 0.163 seconds.

But Theo did not return to the pits and immediately tried to set the second fastest lap. Before qualifying, he said the Hungaroring is one of his favorite tracks, where he feels particularly inspired. But this did not help him, because the tires were no longer in the best condition. But his compatriot Martin drove his circle faster than Vesti, but that wasn’t all: at the end of the session, Duane managed to block the Frenchman’s time and show the 1-minute result. 27,676 seconds.

With just over a minute left in qualifying, Duane felt like starting from pole position in Sunday’s race. It soon became clear that this was no longer just a feeling, but a fact from the sports biography of a 20-year-old Australian. And the first to congratulate him on this success was his father, the famous motorcycle racer Mick Duane, who won five world titles in the 90s.

The second time was left to Victor Martin and only the third was shown by Frederic Vesti, and Theo Purscher ended the session on the 4th line of the protocol.

Kusha Maini’s 10th result allows him to start from first place in tomorrow’s sprint, which will certainly lift the spirits of Indian driver Campos Racing a bit, as it is traditionally difficult to overtake at the Hungaroring, so he has a chance to challenge for high positions on Saturday.