Dennis Hauger takes pole in Austria

A fantastic qualifying performance saw Dennis Hauger of MP Motorsport take a marginal pole position in Austria on Friday afternoon.

Hauger took pole position by just eight thousandths of a second to Paraguay's Joshua Durksen of AIX Racing who came home in second place. Gabriel Bortoleto took third for Invicta Racing.

Paul Aron, who is the championship leader coming into the round qualified fifth but will be off to see the Stewards after the session for a potential unsafe release.

Isack Hadjar, Aron's closest challenger, had an engine issue when on the provisional pole. After the final runs he finished seventh.

How Formula 2 qualifying unfolded

Friday afternoon on a Formula 2 weekend signals the start of the weekend qualifying session and this time it was taking place around the Red Bull Ring in Austria for round seven of 14 in the 2024 championship.

It was top in the day's earlier free practice session for Red Bull junior driver Isack Hadjar who managed to put his Campos two tenths quicker than championship leader Paul Aron.

The green light came on at the end of the pit lane as the session got underway, for 30 minutes in where the drivers would determine the grid for both races.

An issue in practice for Taylor Barnard ruined his running and his qualifying did not get off to the best of the starts as he would stall in the pit lane due to a bit of an unsafe release from Paul Aron. Not the start to the qualifying he would have wanted.

The incident between Aron and Barnard in the pits would be investigated by the Stewards after the session while Rafael Villagomez and Zane Maloney also had an incident in the pit lane with an unsafe release. This would also be investigated after qualifying.

In the first lap times, after a few installation laps, it was the Campos of Hadjar who set the pace in the early stages and he was ahead of Paul Aron, who was second just like practice. Gabriel Bortoleto had done a lap to put himself fourth behind third place Dennis Hauger.

An issue though had appeared for Hadjar, his engine was smoking as he tailored off into the pit lane and it would ultimately end his session. Huge drama in the Formula 2 qualifying and for one of the championship protagonists. He would have to watch and hope that his final qualifying position would not be too dissimilar to pole position.

The drivers would then all head back to the pit lane to get some fuel on board as none of them would want to be disqualified from the session, which happened to the other Campos of Josep Maria Marti in the Friday practice session.

On the final runs, Dennis Hauger went to the top of the times an onto provisional pole and above Hadjar. His teammate Franco Colapinto would go second fastest which would soon be third as Bortoleto would split the pair.

Paul Aron was up to fifth as a great lap each for the two AIX Racing cars saw both go to into the top six with four minutes remaining. A fantastic lap from the pair as Barnard would go to sixth, while his teammate Joshua Durksen would find a lot of time to go second and to the front of the row of the field.

Dursken was flying and was on another personal best and missed out on pole position by eight thousandths of a second. A great effort from the Paraguayan rookie.

The chequered flag would be out and that would be the end of the session for Formula 2 qualifying and delight for Dennis Hauger who put his car on pole position for the feature race to come on Sunday.

Hauger just managed to have enough to beat Joshua Durksen who was second and so close to his maiden pole position. Gabriel Bortoleto was third for Invicta Racing.

Franco Colapinto was fourth for MP Motorsport while it was the championship leader, Paul Aron, who completed the top five. Barnard was sixth with Hadjar seventh, despite the engine issue. A great qualifying for the Campos driver.

His teammate Marti was eighth, while Oliver Bearman of Prema and Kush Maini completed the top 10. Maini will start Saturday's sprint race from reverse grid pole.

The Saturday sprint race will be the next action to come from round seven of the Formula 2 Championship and will take place on Saturday afternoon. Racing action that would not want to be missed.

2024 FIA Formula 2 Championship: Round 7 -Austria qualifying provisional result

1. Dennis Hauger (Norway, MP Motorsport)
2. Joshua Durksen (Paraguay, AIX Racing)
3. Gabriel Bortoleto (Brazil, Invicta Racing)
4. Franco Colapinto (Argentina, MP Motorsport)
5. Paul Aron (Estonia, Hitech Pulse-Eight)
6. Taylor Barnard (Great Britain, AIX Racing)
7. Isack Hadjar (France, Campos Racing)
8. Josep Maria Marti (Spain, Campos Racing)
9. Oliver Bearman (Great Britain, Prema Racing)
10. Kush Maini (India, Invicta Racing)
11. Amaury Cordeel (Belgium, Hitech Pulse-Eight)
12. Zak O'Sullivan (Great Britain, ART Grand Prix)
13. Victor Martins (France, ART Grand Prix)
14. Jak Crawford (United States, DAMS Lucas Oil)
15. Enzo Fittipaldi (Brazil, Van Amersfoort Racing)
16. Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Italy, Prema Racing)
17. Richard Verschoor (Netherlands, Trident)
18. Rafael Villagomez (Mexico, Van Amersfoort Racing)
19. Juan Manuel Correa (United States, DAMS Lucas Oil)
20. Zane Maloney (Barbados, Rodin Motorsport)
21. Ritomo Miyata (Japan, Rodin Motorsport)
22. Roman Stanek (Czech Republic, Trident)

Brandon Whiteside
Writer - F1 Journal