F2 Saudi Arabia: Martins claims maiden pole from Bearman

The ART Grand Prix driver put in a brilliant 1m41.326s to lead the field for Sunday's feature race, with Prema driver Bearman in second.

Reigning Formula 3 champion Martins staked his claim to pole early on, with a 1m42.766s, before Arthur Leclerc went quicker for DAMS with a 1m42.629s.

The first red flag came 12 minutes into the session, with Richard Verschoor spinning his Van Amersfoort Racing car at Turn 22 and coming to a stop on track.

Martins recaptured the top spot shortly after with his best time, and despite Bearman improving on his last run, he was unable to beat the Frenchman.

The session was then ended early after Leclerc suffered a mechanical issue and came to a stop at the exit of Turn 22, scuppering the final attempts of several drivers including 2021 F3 champion Dennis Hauger.

Roman Stanek set an early benchmark on the supersoft tyres, which are available for this round, with a 1m44.162s. He was demoted by Jack Doohan and then Ayumu Iwasa, who set a 1m43.474s, before Bearman went quickest.

Martins then went top, with Kush Maini in second as the rookies showed their good form. Leclerc was next to go fastest, before Martins bettered him by 0.5s ahead of the red flag.

Theo Pourchaire, ART Grand Prix

Photo by: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Despite traffic as the field emerged after the first red flag, Enzo Fittipaldi was able to move up into third for Rodin Carlin, as Frederik Vesti took the top spot for Prema.

Bearman then claimed the lead, before Martins toppled him to claim his maiden pole on just his second F2 weekend. Bearman had also made an early attempt to claim pole, despite a close brush with the wall, but was 0.2s slower than Martins.

He was sat in third when the first stoppage came, but managed to improve to the front row once action resumed.

The Briton's best time was a 1m42.004s, and was the final time to be clocked before the red flag.

Despite lingering around eighth place for the early stages, 2022 runner-up Theo Pourchaire will line up third for ART, having set a 1m42.071s with five minutes remaining.

Doohan will start fourth for Virtuosi, with DAMS' Ayumu Iwasa in sixth and Frederik Vesti seventh for Prema.

Jak Crawford will start on reverse-grid pole for Saturday's sprint race for Hitech having qualified eighth, ahead of Bahrain sprint race winner Ralph Boschung (Campos) and team-mate Maini.

Both Trident drivers, Clement Novalak and Stanek, were handed five-place grid penalties for the sprint race after stewards found that the team's mechanics failed to hand back both drivers’ set of tyres into parc ferme after qualifying.

Team personnel were also found to have worked on the sets of tyres before handing them in, breaching the Sporting Regulations.

As a result, Novalak will line up 16th, with Stanek in 21st.

F2 Saudi Arabia qualifying results

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Victor Martins	ART Grand Prix	11	1'41.326
2	Oliver Bearman	Prema Powerteam	10	1'42.070	0.744
3	Theo Pourchaire	ART Grand Prix	11	1'42.071	0.745
4	Jack Doohan	Invicta Virtuosi Racing	10	1'42.110	0.784
5	Jehan Daruvala	MP Motorsport	9	1'42.111	0.785
6	Ayumu Iwasa	DAMS	10	1'42.120	0.794
7	Frederik Vesti	Prema Powerteam	10	1'42.295	0.969
8	Kush Maini	Campos Racing	9	1'42.360	1.034
9	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	8	1'42.497	1.171
10	Jak Crawford	Hitech Pulse-Eight	11	1'42.553	1.227
11	Clement Novalak	Trident	11	1'42.576	1.250
12	Juan Manuel Correa	Van Amersfoort Racing	11	1'42.617	1.291
13	Arthur Leclerc	DAMS	9	1'42.629	1.303
14	Enzo Fittipaldi	Rodin Carlin	11	1'42.686	1.360
15	Dennis Hauger	MP Motorsport	9	1'42.754	1.428
16	Roman Stanek	Trident	11	1'42.795	1.469
17	Zane Maloney	Rodin Carlin	11	1'42.819	1.493
18	Roy Nissany	PHM Racing by Charouz	10	1'42.854	1.528
19	Isack Hadjar	Hitech Pulse-Eight	9	1'43.079	1.753
20	Richard Verschoor	Van Amersfoort Racing	4	1'43.385	2.059
21	Amaury Cordeel	Invicta Virtuosi Racing	9	1'43.736	2.410
22	Brad Benavides	PHM Racing by Charouz	10	1'45.027	3.701
View full results