Belgian Grand Prix – F2 Qualifying: Paul Aron on pole but penalized, Martins stopped

At 4:00 p.m. local time, the pit lane lights came on and, with them, the engines of the single-seaters, starting with Paraguayan Joshua Durksen, who was the first driver to take to the track, followed closely by his teammate Taylor Barnard.

A red flag caused by Victor Martins

After only six minutes into the session, a yellow flag was waved in the 2nd and 3rd sectors before turning into a red flag, as a result of an issue on French driver Victor Martins’ ART GP car. Upset, the best rookie of 2023 stayed for long seconds near his single-seater. He will therefore start from the back for both races.

After ten minutes of interruption, the drivers returned to the track with the first fast laps, starting with the former championship leader Paul Aron who temporarily took the lead before being beaten a few seconds later by the current championship leader, the Campos driver, Isack Hadjar, the Frenchman taking advantage of the good straight-line speed of his single-seater.

Let’s remember that even if he takes pole position, Paul Aron will receive a 10-place penalty, as a consequence of several incidents involving him during the Silverstone weekend. This penalty will only apply to Saturday’s Sprint race.

At mid-race, Hadjar is leading, as is already the case in the championship, the Estonian Paul Aron and the Brazilian driver Gabriel Bortoleto. After a few minutes spent in the pits, all drivers, except for Victor Martins, took a second set of soft tires without changing the fuel in their car, as explained in the FIA regulations.

Fresh tires led to many improvements, starting with Danish driver Dennis Hauger, who was quickly overtaken by Jack Crawford and then Paul Aron with a time of 1:56.959, a time that will not be beaten by other drivers, notably his two main rivals Hadjar and Bortoleto. The Frenchman crossed the line feeling very frustrated, explaining that he activated the safety car (SC) mode during his quick lap, preventing him from securing pole position. As for Bortoleto, he explained on the radio that he wanted to attempt one last lap to beat the time set by the Hitech driver, but he did not succeed. With the penalty for the Estonian driver, he will still start from pole position.

Note, however, that the results are not final with four drivers being investigated by the FIA for obstructing other drivers in the Eau Rouge climb, just after the Raidillon. Among them, we find Kimi Antonelli, Zane Maloney, Ritomo Miyata, and the Frenchman Isack Hadjar who could therefore lose his 3rd place, which would be a severe blow in his championship title fight.

Let’s remember that with the reversed grid, it’s the driver who finished tenth who will take the pole position for the sprint race on Saturday.

Result of F2 qualifications.