Charles Leclerc secured a sixth pole position in six FIA Formula 2 Championship qualifying sessions as he once again dominated on a Friday afternoon, this time around Silverstone.
The Prema Racing driver equalled the record of current McLaren Honda Formula 1 Team racer Stoffel Vandoorne, who took six consecutive pole positions in his category, although the Ferrari Driver Academy star has set his all in the same season whilst Vandoorne did it across the 2014 and 2015 GP2 Series seasons.
Leclerc was in dominant form once more, ending up 0.458 seconds faster than Oliver Rowland, with the DAMS driver set to join the Prema driver on the front row of the grid, while Norman Nato of Pertamina Arden and Jordan King of MP Motorsport will share row two.
Red Bull Ring Sprint race winner Artem Markelov will start fifth for Russian Time, but the Russian was 0.635 seconds down on the pole time, while Nicholas Latifi of DAMS ended up sixth fastest, a further 0.076 seconds back.
Sergio Canamasas had one of his better qualifying performances with seventh for Rapax, just ahead of ART Grand Prix’s Nobuharu Matsushita, while MP Motorsport’s Sergio Sette Câmara and ART’s Alexander Albon completed the top ten, the latter as a result of making a mistake at turn one on his final run that prevented him from improving.
There will be a couple of drivers who will be more disappointed with their qualifying efforts than others, with Nyck de Vries outside the top ten in eleventh for Rapax, while Luca Ghiotto will start down in thirteenth for Russian Time, just behind Gustav Malja.
Whereas Leclerc will start on pole position, his team-mate Antonio Fuoco, fresh off his best weekend of the season in Austria, had a nightmare session, with the Italian ending up 2.141 seconds behind his team-mate and right at the back of the grid after mistakes cost him badly.
Whereas those drivers will be unhappy, series debutant Callum Ilott, making a one-off appearance at Silverstone with Trident, will be far happier and will start Saturday’s Feature race in fifteenth, just behind Louis Delétraz, with the Briton finishing 0.458 seconds faster than team-mate Nabil Jeffri.
Silverstone Qualifying Result
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