Crawford Secures Pole Position
The Formula 2 qualifying session in Baku began with a slight delay due to ongoing track work. All cars went out simultaneously, causing the usual congestion.
Initially, Jack Crawford took the lead, but he was soon overtaken by Gabriele Mini and Roman Stanek. The session was promptly halted with red flags following a serious crash involving Amory Cordilla at Turn 13. Before the stoppage, Alex Dunne managed to set the fastest time of 1:55.846.
After the session resumed, Crawford recorded the best time of 1:54.791, breaking last year’s record. Dunne and the leader of the junior series, Leonardo Fornaroli, were unable to improve their laps due to errors, though Fornaroli soon set the second-fastest time, trailing Crawford by just 0.019 seconds.
Several incidents occurred in the remaining minutes of qualifying. Victor Marten lost control at Turn 3, severely damaging the front suspension and causing a fire in the nose of his car. Later, a collision occurred between Roman Stanek and John Bennett after Stanek returned to the track from the runoff area, which led to the session being stopped definitively.
As a result, Jack Crawford secured pole position for the Sunday race, with Leonardo Fornaroli alongside him in the front row. The second row will feature Gabriele Mini and Victor Marten. In the Saturday sprint race, Sebastian Montoya is expected to start from pole, although he is currently in tenth place.
Among the debutants for the Trident team, Martinius Stenshorn delivered an impressive eighth-place result, while his Dutch teammate, Laurens van Hoepen, finished 20th.
