Formula 2: Frederic Vesti wins pole at Red Bull Ring

The Red Bull Ring has a fairly short lap and during Formula 3 qualifying on the Austrian circuit, familiar situations arose in which the drivers simply prevented each other from having a good time due to the very busy traffic. Some people were luckier in these circumstances, others less so.

It was likely that Formula 2 qualifying would repeat much the same, but the participants in this series had organized a session even more. On the one hand, there are fewer cars in F2, on the other hand, the drivers are more experienced.

Juri Vips was the first to show a more or less representative result, with a lap in 1 minute. 26,140 seconds, but it was clear that this was just the beginning. Jack Duane quickly improved this time, but only by a tenth. But already on the next attempt the riders “shot” the track and really started to show what they are capable of, and the same Duane drove the circle almost 12 seconds faster in one go – in 1:14.599!

The second result in this qualifying phase was Logan Sargent, the winner of Sunday’s race at Silverstone. However, he did not stay long on the second line, from there he was ousted by Felipe Drugovich, the leader of the individual classification. Logan didn’t like this and he rode faster than the Brazilian on his next lap, but he wouldn’t take this in turn and was again ahead of Sargent.

Meanwhile, the first half of the session drew to a close with Duane standing on the front line, improving his own result by more than half a second.

Everyone went to the pits for fresh tires and the fight resumed when less than 12 minutes were left before the end of qualifying.

Oddly enough, Amaury Kordil, the main rule breaker, quickly climbed to second place and had to miss the stage at Silverstone, having racked up 12 penalty points since the start of the season. But now he’s back behind the wheel, apparently trying to rehabilitate himself.

The first to improve Duane’s result was Drugovic, but Jack outperformed the Brazilian on his next lap. However, both were directly ahead of Frederic Vesti, with a time of 1 minute. 14,123 seconds.

But the battle for pole position continued with Yuri Vips moving up to second and Logan Sargent to third. Curiously, Theo Purscher, one of Drugovic’s main rivals in the battle for championship leadership, couldn’t find an approach to the Austrian circuit and didn’t rise above the 9th line. This happened partly because his best result was canceled due to not respecting the limits of the track. Purscher was by no means the only one who was punished for this.

Felipe, on the other hand, finished in fifth place – literally at the last minute Ayumu Iwasa came out on the track again, which no one expected, and showed the 4th time on the free track, the leader of the personal classification a line lower.

And pole plus two bonus points eventually went to Formula 2 debutant Frederik Vesti. The qualifying win at the Red Bull Ring was the first achievement of his career for the 20-year-old Dane. He will start from first position in Sunday’s race and in tomorrow’s sprint Marcus Armstrong will start from pole, showing today’s 10th result.

Qualification Results