Mini steals Martins' first pole of the year

(Update : Gabriele Mini was penalized three places on the grid and lost his pole position to Victor Martins)

Gabriele Mini (Prema) could not have asked for a better way to start his adventure in Formula 2Expected among the favorites, the Italian responded this Friday on the track of Albert Park. But the competition against him was tough since the protégé ofAlpine had to face a Victor Martins (ART Grand Prix), a former resident of the A fléché academy, in great form.

The two men were the main drivers during this half-hour of qualifying, stringing together very good fast laps and, above all, improvements. Victor Martins thought he was holding on when he crossed the finish line in 1:29, but behind him, Gabriele Mini wasn't finished with his final flying lap. And this allowed him to dislodge his rival from first place thanks to a final time of 400:1, 29:286 faster than the Frenchman's, thus securing his first pole position in Formula 0.

Jak Crawford (Dams), Richard Verschoor (MP Motorsport) and Alex Dunne (Rodin Motorsport) completed the top five of the session, but this ranking will be subject to considerable change. Indeed, no fewer than six drivers were guaranteed a 5-place penalty at the end of these qualifying sessions due to the sensor affair : Jak Crawford, Kush Maini (DAMS), Alex Dunne, Amaury Cordeel (Rodin Motorsport), Sami Meguetounif (Trident) and Max Esterson (Trident).

Jak Crawford thus falls to 13th place and Alex Dunne to 15th. Kush Maini, Sami Meguetounif, Amaury Cordeel and Max Esterson will be 19th, 20th, 21st and 22nd respectively on the starting grid for the two races of the weekend.

This therefore suits Ritomo Miyata (ART Grand Prix) who moves up to 10th place and therefore takes pole position for the Sprint Race this Saturday (4:15 a.m.).

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