Official F1 Journal Formula 2 Thursday Round Up- Saudi Arabia Practice & Qualifying

Practice- Very Windy      Track temp-52º  Air Temp 27º  

The session started with cars straight out on track and a very quick Virtual Safety car test, Franco Colapinto was straight out and putting lots of laps in along side Paul Aron who despite a difficult qualifying in Bahrain had a strong Feature race finishing 3rd at his debut F2 weekend. 
O'Sullivan very briefly brought out yellow flags for a moment in the mid corner of turn 16 but carried on. 
Maloney who dominated the first weekend of the year in Bahrain winning both races, went top of the times on his first time of trying with a 1'45.811 ahead of Beaman by half a second. 
32 minutes on the clock and we started to see lots of times deleted for track limits at turn 22. Including Colapinto, Antonelli and Martins.
31 on the clock, Red flag for Villagomez who hit the exit barrier of turn 13/14 HARD in  his Van Amersfoort car. He was fine but took no further part in the only Practice session of the weekend as the clock continued to count down while they recovered the car.

 The track went green with 17 to go and the field were straight out to make the most of the time they had left to dial themselves and their cars into this extremely difficult  street track before Qualifying just hours later. 
Olli Bearman was doing his best in his struggling Prema car, pushing it up to and beyond its ability, finding the kerbs and almost the wall with his aggressive driving style. Hauger bested Maloney for the top spot on their first laps after Red Flag before Martins, Maini and Aron went faster than Maloney but none could beat Hauger's time. 
10 minutes to go Martins was purple in sector 1 as the Qualifying Simulation runs began in earnest. Martins couldn't beat Hauger's most recent lap and went 2nd.
Bearman & Antonelli put themselves inside the top 10 showing some improvement from the Prema team already. 

Hauger who topped the times with 7 to go was clearly very happy in his MP car, Correa and team mate Crawford went 4th & 5th showing pace in the DAMS car as Martins had another crack at beating Haugers fastest lap but couldn't find the time in sector 3. 
Miyata was struggling down in 19th with 3 minutes on the clock joined by O'Sullivan(16th) and Hadjar in 21st all struggling with Hadjar out of the car before the session ended while the team try to fix an issue. 
Martins purple sector 1 again and despite an average middle sector finally beat Hauger's time for 1st for about 30 seconds before Hauger set another stonking lap to take the top spot back.  
Bearman put together a great lap to go 4th while team mate Antonelli was 9th and the session ended with Colapinto kissing the wall at turn 17.

Practice Result

1 HAU                  2 MAI +0.103
3 VMA +0.129      4 BEA +0.300
5 CRA +0.440      6 VER +0.465
7 JCO +0.485       8 MAL +0.527
9 ANT +0.539      10 BOR +0.605
11 FIT +0.732      12 COL +0.775
13 ARO +1.087    14 JMA +1.099
15 OSU +1.099    16 STA +1.123
17 ACO +1.407    18 DUR +1.444
19 BAR +1.589     20 MIY +1.670
21 HAD +2.829     22 VIL +6.443(DNF)

Qualifying 

All the cars came straight out as the lights went green to begin the session, inititally Hauger set the pace like most of Practice till Bearman took the top spot with a 1'43.2 from him, finding his form finally in what has been a troublesome  Prema car. Maini went 2nd fastest followed by Vershoor and Victor Martins in 3rd & 4th. with 19 2 go Maloney had only set a lap to put him 14th as Hauger tops Bearman again  but Martins could not improve on his next time of trying. 
Colapinto kissed the wall causing some damage to the front left wishbone. Antonelli had a big lock up into turn1. Aron set a mighty lap to put himself in the mix and 2nd ahead of Bearman.
17 minutes on the clock and Rodin have the body work off the championship leaders car. 

2023 F3 champion Bortoleto bailed on his most recent after not improving on his P4 time.
Half the session gone and all but 2 cars are in the pits making their final preparations to the car in their hunt for Pole. Maloney needed to improve down in 17th, so stayed out while the others are in the pits after he lost time earlier having changes made this only helped him up to 14th. Maloney is not the only Rodin struggling with Miyata also not happy in Jeddah down in 20th 

7 minutes on the clock and all the cars are out on track and looking for space to set their lap. With the track temperatures and the wind speed dropping the cars were only getting faster. 1st man to cross the line Stanek tops the times, Bearman had a great 1st sector as his team mate goes 2nd fastest till Aron takes the top spot. Bearman purple in sector 2, Martins went 2nd fastest and as Bearman crossed the line and went fastest by 0.421 till Maini got the closest of anyone just 0.025 slower than Bearman in the Prema, with time for them all to set another lap! 
Hauger, Martins, Aron and Stanek all improving on their 2nd laps, Fittipaldi went up to 4th, Aron couldn't improve, Crawford went up to 3rd. Bearman didn't improve on his last lap with Maini going faster still, but Maini couldn't get it done in the last sector and Bearman took Pole in Saudi Arabia. What a difference a week has made for Prema and Olli Bearman 

Qualifying Result 

1 BEA 1'42.217       2 MAI +0.025
3 CRA +0.159          4 MAR +0.180
5 FIT +0.203            6 ANT +0.228 
7 HAU +0.238          8 HAD +0.296
​9 VER +0.368         10 ARO +0.421
11 JMA +0.451        12 STA +0.455
13 COL +0.644        14 OSU +0.669
15 BOR +0.725       16 MAL +0.823
17 JCO +0.901        18 BAR +0.928
19 DUR +1.327       20 MIY +1.560
21 COR +1.680       22 VIL N/A
​  

Joanna Blackmore 
Writer @f1journal.co.uk