Kazim Vasiliauskas claimed pole for race 2 of the FIA Formula 2 Championship at Brands Hatch. Vasiliauskas took pole in a hectic qualifying, with the session being red flagged when Parthiva Sureshwaren had a shunt at Westfield. When the session was green flagged, the field had a disjointed feel, as some drivers had used all 3 of the available overboosts for the session.
Philipp Eng had set the early pace, followed by Tom Gladdis who had set a time of 1:15.8s when the red flags were shown. Vasiliauskas took advantage of the confusion to set his time with only 2 minutes left on the clock. Eng managed to a personal best time, just 0.8s behind Vasiliauskas to move up the order. The most impressive lap came from Gladdis. After the disappointment of not getting to set his 1:15s lap, he came back on to track after the restart, and set a non-boost lap to claim third on the grid.
Championship leader Jolyon Palmer was briefly fourth, but was jumped by Sergey Afanasiev in the final minute. Fellow British driver Will Bratt continued with some impressive form to claim sixth. One of the main casualties of the red flag period was race 1 winner Dean Stoneman. The red flag was shown just after he had completed a lap in which he had used all 3 boosts. Stoneman decided not to come out after the restart, saving tyres for tommorows race. He will start in seventh. Nicola De Marco will start the race next to Stoneman in eighth.
Indian Armaan Ebrahim grabbed ninth with a lap in which he set the fastest time of anyone in sector three as the session drew to a close. Mihai Marinescu rounds out what has been one of the closest top tens this season with the Romanian finishing just over half a second off Vasiliauskas’ pole time.
