Nyck de Vries admitted to being ‘extremely happy’ after securing his maiden FIA Formula 2 pole position at Spa-Francorchamps, although he put pressure on himself by having his first time deleted for exceeding track limits.
The twenty-three-year-old Pertamina Prema Theodore Racing driver topped the Qualifying session at the Belgian circuit by more than four-tenths of a second, with championship leader George Russell his closest rival, and he thanked the team for giving him such a strong car throughout Friday, having also topped the one and only free practice session earlier in the day.
“I’m extremely happy for taking our first pole together,” said de Vries. “I’ve been really strong all day, and honestly, the car was amazing.
“Thank you very much to the team for that.”
De Vries said he was under pressure to perform in his second run but now on pole position, he is aiming for his third victory of the season after the Sprint race win at the Circuit Paul Ricard and the Feature race victory last time out at the Hungaroring.
“It was a bit of an exciting one as our first lap got deleted,” said de Vries, who is a member of the McLaren F1 Team’s junior programme. “There was some pressure for the second run, you know you have everything to do it and you have only one shot.
“I’m very happy that I’ve done it, let’s see if we can turn it into a win tomorrow. It would be perfect to perform well in front of all the Dutch fans that will come to support us.”
