Claiming his sixth consecutive pole position at the British Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc headed to the Hugaroring, targeting a seventh pole position in seven qualifying sessions in Formula 2.
Charles Leclerc makes Formula 2 history with seven consecutive poles
Heading to qualifying, a number of drivers were looking quick and competitive in Budapest, and while Leclerc topped the session, Oliver Rowland and Nyck de Vries followed the Monegasque driver close behind for DAMS and Rapax.
In the early stages of the session, Campos Racing’s Ralph Boschung fell into difficulty, driving around slowly out on track. Despite apparent issues with his car, he made it back to the pit lane without stopping.
After the first runs of the session, Oliver Rowland found himself as the pacesetter from Artem Markelov and Antonio Fuoco. However, Charles Leclerc, Norman Nato, Sean Gelael, and Alexander Albon opted to go out on track after this while the first 16 runners pitted, leaving the four drivers with clean air and no traffic to contend with. With 18 minutes to go however, Gelael spun on his warm up lap, causing the red flag to be deployed. This prevented any of the late runners in the first part of the session from completing a representative lap time, although they again took to the track when the green flag waved.
After completing his first flying lap of the session, Leclerc took provisional pole from Rowland while Nato settled into tenth and Albon moved into seventh place.
With just over ten minutes remaining in the session, the drivers took to the track for their final runs and Oliver Rowland was looking to find 0.4 seconds in his lap time to challenge Leclerc for pole.
With three minutes to go, Rowland was out of his car, knowing that he was unable to challenge Leclerc after his final attempt was 0.6 seconds off the pace. Ultimately, no one was able to challenge Leclerc and the driver again took pole position, making Formula 2 history to take seven consecutive pole positions.
Having claimed pole by 0.4 seconds, Leclerc is looking strong in the Feature Race and based upon his current form and pace from practice and qualifying, it is hard to argue against him for the victory. Oliver Rowland will be looking to spoil Leclerc’s day however, and will be aiming to reclaim second place in the Drivers’ Championship from Artem Markelov. A win is Rowland’s best bet to do this. Further down the field, Santino Ferrucci will be looking to impress on his Formula 2 debut for Trident having qualified in 11th place.
Qualifying results for the Hungarian Formula 2 Feature Race:
- Charles Leclerc, Prema Racing, 1:26.268
- Oliver Rowland, DAMS, 1:26.731
- Artem Markelov, Russian Time, 1:26.806
- Jordan King, MP Motorsport, 1:26.849
- Antonio Fuoco, Prema Racing, 1:26.885
- Norman Nato, Pertamina Arden Racing, 1:26.968
- Nicholas Latifi, DAMS, 1:26.973
- Nyck de Vries, Rapax, 1:27.026
- Nobuharu Matsushita, ART Grand Prix, 1:27.103
- Sergio Canamasas, Rapax, 1:27.129
- Santino Ferrucci, Trident, 1:27.139
- Alexander Albon, ART Grand Prix, 1:27.221
- Luca Ghiotto, Russian Time, 1:27.238
- Robert Visoiu, Campos Racing, 1:27.301
- Ralph Boschung, Campos Racing, 1:27.339
- Sergio Sette Camara, MP Motorsport, 1:27.492
- Louis Deletraz, Racing Engineering, 1:27.582
- Gustav Malja, Racing Engineering, 1:27.804
- Nabil Jeffri, Trident, 1:28.248
- Sean Gelael, Pertamina Arden Racing, No time
