The Formula 2 Championship begins its European leg in Round 4 in Monaco. The Qualifying session for this weekend’s Round is divided into two groups of eleven: Group A and Group B. Each group has 16 minutes, and the fastest driver from both groups will be the one taking pole for Sunday’s Feature race.
Rafael Câmara was the fastest in Group A and overall in the Qualifying session, taking pole for the Feature race, alongside Nikola Tsolov, who was fastest in Group B Qualifying session part.
Group A Qualifying session results
The first group was formed by Rafael Câmara, Ritomo Miyata, Noel León, Dino Beganovic, Gabriele Mini, Sebastián Montoya, Alexander Dunne, Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, Cian Shields, Rafael Villagómez, and John Bennett.
As Câmara was doing his first fast lap, the Invicta driver went slightly wide and damaged the suspension, putting an early end to his Qualifying session. Meanwhile, León also had a moment as he slid; fortunately, he redirected the car and could continue.
Beganovic was being investigated for pitlane infringement, while Dunne led the group with a 1:22.427. León was caught in traffic during his fast lap. With five minutes remaining, Dino Beganovic led the group with a 1:21.547 as the Invicta Racing team tried to manage Câmara’s car, sitting in a virtual tenth row.
With three minutes remaining, Bennett went into the barriers, and a red flag was displayed, ending his session. Câmara had the chance to go out for the last two minutes of the session. Every driver improved their times, but it was Câmara who led the group with a 1:20.923 and provisional pole.
Group B results
In the Group B Qualifying session, the drivers who took part were Joshua Dürksen, Colton Herta, Nikola Tsolov, Roman Bilinski, Oliver Goethe, Mari Boya, Martinius Stenshorne, Kush Maini, Emerson Fittipaldi, Nico Varrone, and Laurens van Hoepen.
In this Qualifying session, the time to beat is Câmara’s 1:20.923. However, Maini made contact with the back of Van Hoepen just three minutes in, deploying the second red flag of the Qualifying session.
When the Qualifying session resumed a couple of minutes later, Tsolov went quickest of the group ahead of Varrone and Stenshorne. However, it was short-lived, as everyone lit up the timesheets with improvements, and Maini led the group with five minutes remaining.
In the last few minutes, drivers tried to improve their times. Stenshorne was at the top with a 1:21.247 until Tsolov took the top in a late attempt with a 1:21.053 and secured a front-row start for the Feature race on Sunday.
Overall results of the Qualifying session
Overall, after the Qualifying session, Rafael Câmara took pole position for Formula 2 Round 4 in Monaco, alongside Nikola Tsolov. During his Qualifying session, Câmara was unable to participate for the majority of it as he damaged his suspension early on. However, Invicta Racing was capable of managing the damaged parts, and Câmara went out for a late attempt that proved fruitful as the Brazilian driver set the fastest time overall.
