Formula 2: Gabriele Bortoleto wins pole at Imola

Towards the evening, as Formula 2 qualifying began at Imola, air and asphalt temperatures rose slightly and track conditions deteriorated compared to that day’s practice. Accordingly, driving on the Italian circuit, which was already difficult, became less comfortable.

As if to confirm this, several drivers made mistakes early in the session, found themselves off track, but came back and continued to fight for pole. This was the case, for example, with Pepe Marti, the Spanish Campos driver, and with Franco Colapinto, who drives for MP Motorsport.

When the youth series racers were just getting used to the changed conditions, the first to show a more or less representative time was season leader Zane Maloney driving a Rodin Motorsport car, but soon his result was immediate with a few tenths surpassed by Gabriele. Bortoleto, who completed a lap in 1:27.739.

This time remained the best in the first half of the session, after which everyone went to the pits for fresh tires. Interestingly, Oliver Berman and Kimi Antonelli, the Prema drivers who have the best chance of getting into Formula 1, have kept a low profile so far and are on the 7th and 13th lines of the protocol respectively.

After the break, not everyone was able to get back on track straight away: DAMS mechanics continued to tinker with Jack Crofurd’s car and Rodin was feverishly trying to figure out what was wrong with the Dallara brakes of the Japanese Ritomo Miata, but he soon went also for his decisive efforts.

It was clear that many had improved, or at least completed the sectors much faster than in the first 15 minutes of the session, and Antonelli moved into first place, but he was immediately pushed aside first by Berman and then by Isaac Hajar.

There were only a few minutes left until the end of the session; it was clear that the qualifying competitors were taking more and more risks and it was becoming increasingly difficult for them to keep their cars on track. In this situation, Brazilian Gabriele Bortoletto, an Invicta Racing driver, completed a lap in 1:27.056, and no one could beat the time of the McLaren youth program participant.

Immediately after the end of the session it was announced that both Prema drivers had been fined for violating track limits and had been moved to positions far from pole in the qualifying protocol – Berman was 16th and Antonelli, his Italian teammate, was 18th.

For example, Gabriele Bortoleto will start from pole on Sunday, alongside him Isaac Hajjar will start the weekend’s main race from the front row and the cars of Joshua Duerksen and Zane Maloney will be on the second row. Because F2 uses a partially reversible starting grid, pole for the sprint went to Franco Colapinto, who posted the tenth fastest time today.

Qualifying results