Free Practice 1-
Paul Aron was in impressive form in Formula 2’s first session at the Lusail International Circuit after finishing at the top of the Practice leaderboard.
The Hitech Pulse-Eight driver was in eye catching form throughout as he ended up 0.642s clear of Invicta Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto. MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor rounded out the top three.
However, it was ART Grand Prix driver, Victor Martins that led the way early on, going to the top of the leaderbaord on a 1:43.018.
But as the first set of laps were being completed, the Virtual Safety Car was signalled after DAMS’ debutant Dino Beganovic stopped on track with an issue.
Action then resumed with 33 minutes left on the clock as the drivers started to return to track for their second flying laps it was Championship leader, Bortoleto that went fastest with a 1:40.366.
The times continued to drop as the track ramped up but this time it was Aron who was quickest with a 1:39.236 putting him three-tenths clear of Bortoleto as Martins once again ended up in P3.
Aron went even quicker on his next two attempts, first moving to a 1:38.926 before going over nine tenths fastest on his next lap to drop the benchmark to 1:38.024.
However, there was 17 minutes left on the clock when the drivers were forced to return to the pit lane after ART’s Luke Browning beached his car in the gravel at Turn 9 bringing out the Red Flags.
The green flag was waved with under nine minutes left leading to a flurry of activity in the pit lane as the drivers came out for their final laps of the sessions.
Qualifying-
Paul Aron made it a Friday weep, topping Qualifying for Hitech Pulse-Eight in impressive fashion. The Estonian driver went to the top with his first flying lap and couldn’t be dethroned.
Championship leader, Bortoleto wounded up second, 0.3s down on the 1:35.115 of Aron, while Victor Martins rounded out the top three.
With the early laps of the session, PREMA Racing’s Oliver Bearman put himself to the top with a 1:38.065, 0.125s quicker than familiar foe Martins.
The track evolution continued to be rapid and on the next go around, Bortoleto set the time to beat with a 1:36.914. Bearman, Martins and then Aron bettered his time, the Hitech driver quickest again on a 1:36.614.
While Bearman and Aron opted to pit, Bortoleto continued to do a third push lap, and he set a 1:36.586 to take over at the halfway stage with direct title rival Hadjar in 13th.
With 12 minutes to go, drivers returned to the track with fresh Mediums fitted, but the first of the final attempts came with seven minutes left on the clock.
Aron lowered the time to beat a 1:36.088 with an impressive final sector, while Bortoleto filtered through 0.3s down on that effort in P2.
Inside the final five minutes and the track ramped up once more, and Richard Verschoor lifted himself into P1, but Aron had yet another answer for his rivals.
Bortoleto responded and closed the gap down once more but was 0.023s down in second position.
The full top 10 are- Pole: Aron, P2: Bortoleto, P3: Martins, P4: Beganovic, P5: Verschoor, P6: Crawford, P7: Maini, P8: Goethe, P9: Hadjar and P10: Bearman.
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