Round 11 of the Formula 2 Championship took place at the brand-new circuit of Madring, in Madrid. Following the incident during Free Practice, Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak could not take part in the Qualifying session. Dino Beganovic took the first pole position in Madrid, ahead of Alexander Dunne and Rafael Câmara.
Two early red flags
Just five minutes into the Formula 2 Qualifying session, things started to go wrong on track. As Kush Maini began his first lap, it was interrupted by a yellow flag after Sebastián Montoya spun off track. However, Maini couldn’t finish his lap when he crashed and triggered the first red flag of the session.
The session quickly restarted, and drivers started setting more representative laps. The fastest overall kept changing constantly between Alexander Dunne and Nikola Tsolov. However, this time Nico Varrone was the third driver to crash on Turn 20, which triggered the second red flag. As it stood, Tsolov was on provisional pole.
The session restarted a second time, and Montoya was able to take part, as his team repaired the damage during the pause. However, Montoya lost drive and couldn’t go further in this session. Meanwhile, Dunne retook provisional pole while Tsolov remained in the pits.
Beganovic sets the pace
As the session continued, Roman Bilinski, Laurens van Hoepen and John Bennett also improved their times. Dino Beganovic took provisional pole with an impressive lap around Madring. Beganovic kept improving his own time, building a bigger gap.
With five minutes on the clock, Nikola Tsolov was completing his flying lap, but Bennett’s crash triggered the third red flag of the session. As it stood, Beganovic was on provisional pole while the title contenders, Tsolov and Rafael Câmara, were down in P9 and P14, respectively.
The session quickly restarted with three minutes left. Despite all the improvements, Beganovic was able to keep provisional pole. Meanwhile, Tsolov moved up to fifth, and Câmara improved to third. On his last lap, Colton Herta crashed. Ultimately, the Swedish driver secured the first Formula 2 pole position in Madrid, ahead of Alexander Dunne and Rafael Câmara.
