Maloney pips Hadjar to secure first F2 feature race pole · RaceFans

Zane Maloney secured his first Formula 2 feature race pole by just beating Isack Hadjar in a disrupted qualifying session at Monza.

The Sauber junior beat the championship leader by less than a tenth of a second to secure pole for Sunday’s race, while Paul Aron qualified in third.

Prema driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli returned to his F2 car for qualifying after his outing for Mercedes in the first Formula 1 practice session ended in the barriers. Series debutant Oliver Goethe prepared for his first F2 session after stepping into the MP car vacated by new Williams driver Franco Colapinto.

It was a slow start to the 30 minute session, with only Roman Stanek bothering to head out in the opening minutes. Goethe’s first flying lap attempt was ruined when he missed his braking point for the Rettifilo Chicane and had to run through the gravel. Hadjar was also unhappy with Stanek for what he felt was the Trident impeding him into the first chicane on his first flying lap. The stewards noted the incident but did not feel the need to investigate.

Antonelli set the early pace with a 1’32.941 before Victor Martins caused an early red flag by running wide at the Lesmos and dislodging a braking marker board which fell onto the track. Once that was cleared, the session resumed but was stopped again soon afterwards, this time due to Gabriel Bortoleto running off at the Lesmos and coming to a stop on the grass.

With the session set to a hard cut-off at 4:35pm local time, the session timer continued to tick down. Eventually qualifying resumed with seven minutes remaining, leading to a rush out onto the circuit. Championship leader Hadjar jumped to the front of the times, but he was beaten by Maloney by just under a tenth of a second.

The chequered flag flew to signal the end of the session but there were no significant improvements at the front of the field. That meant that Maloney took pole position for Sunday’s feature race, ahead of championship leader Hadjar.

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Paul Aron will start third on the grid, ahead of Dennis Hauger, Martins and Antonelli in sixth. Pepe Martin secured seventh ahead of Oliver Bearman, with Amaury Cordeel and Enzo Fittipaldi completing the top ten and securing reverse grid pole for Saturday’s sprint race.

Formula 2 Italian qualifying results

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