George Russell secured his third consecutive pole position as he extended his advantage over Lando Norris in the FIA Formula 2 Championship standings to fourteen points at Silverstone on Friday afternoon.
The ART Grand Prix driver was the early pacesetter, setting a time of 1:40.706s to take top spot, before improving that to a 1:40.606s on his next flying lap.
However, it was not all plain sailing for the Briton, with Antonio Fuoco setting a blistering time of 1:40.289s to take top spot with just over twelve minutes remaining, and it looked as though Charouz Racing System would possibly take their first pole position in Formula 2.
However, they had not counted on Russell, who became the first (and only) driver to dip beneath 1:40s, with his 1:39.989s taking the pole and the four available points for it.
Alexander Albon was also able to get ahead of Fuoco with a best of 1:40.065s, with the DAMS driver set to start on the front row for Saturday’s Feature race in Great Britain.
Fuoco and team-mate Louis Delétraz will line-up side-by-side on row two, with the former improving his time on his final run to a 1:40.094s, 0.096 seconds clear of the latter, while Carlin Motorsport lock out row three, Sergio Sette Câmara ahead of Norris, with the Britain just over four-tenths of a second behind Russell’s pole time.
Arjun Maini will take heart by setting the seventh fastest time for Trident ahead of Artem Markelov, who will be relieved to take eighth with a last gap lap moving the Russian Time racer up from eighteenth.
Luca Ghiotto will start ninth for Campos Vexatec Racing, while the top ten will be rounded out by Maximilian Günther, who was able to take to the track after his earlier crash in practice on board his BWT Arden.
Nyck de Vries will be disappointed to miss out on the top ten for Pertamina Prema Theodore Racing, as will Jack Aitken, who ended up almost nine-tenths of a second behind Russell in twelfth despite being his team-mate.
The session was halted with just over twenty-two minutes remaining when Roy Nissany stopped his Campos Vexatec Racing machine at the loop, with the Israeli’s car in a dangerous enough position for the officials to throw the red flags. The marshals soon put the car into a safe position, but it meant a few drivers were forced to abort their first genuine flying laps, with only twelve drivers getting a time in before the stoppage.
Silverstone Circuit Qualifying Result
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