Barcelona, CMC: Zane Maloney will start the Spanish Grand Prix Formula 2 feature race on Sunday from the back of the grid for Rodin Carlin after struggling through qualifying on Friday.
The teenage Barbadian race car driver clocked a best lap time of one minute, 24.661 seconds and finished with the 21st fastest time out of the 22 contestants at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
British driver Oliver Bearman, 18, denied Maloney’s teammate Enzo Fittipaldi’s pole position by only 0.077 secs with a lap time of 1 min, 23.546 secs in the final moments of qualifying.
Fittipaldi, driving his Rodin Carlin, provisionally held the top spot until the late effort from Bearman was good enough to beat the Brazilian to pole position.
Invicta Virtuosi driver Jack Doohan of Australia will be hoping to reignite his season, going from third on the grid for the feature race.
Maloney is sixth in the 22-driver F2 standings on 48 points after five of the 13 races on the schedule for this year (reduced because of the cancellation of the Italian Grand Prix), with his best showing third last weekend in Monaco and the season opener in Bahrain, and a solid fifth in the third race in Australia.
Bearman’s teammate, Frederik Vesti of Denmark, leads the drivers’ standings with 89 points, five more than ART Grand Prix driver Théo Pourchaire of France, with Dams Racing driver Ayumu Iwasa of Japan third on 69, Campos Racing driver Kush Maini of India fourth on 49, and MP Motorsport driver Dennis Hauger of Norway fifth on 48.
Formula 2 is the second tier to Formula 1 racing, organized by the FIA, motor sport’s world governing body, and held on select circuits on the F1 schedule.
ART Grand Prix driver Victor Martins of France led the field out of the pit lane when the light went green to get qualifying started.
The Frenchman set the initial benchmark, but he was swiftly beaten by those behind him, including Fittipaldi.
The Brazilian driver briefly held the top spot until Doohan laid down a 1:24.078 to go three-tenths-of-a-second clear, and Iwasa slotted into second, leaving the Rodin Carlin driver third.
Hauger was 0.4 back from Doohan in fourth, only 0.002 clear of Maini in fifth.
PREMA Racing opted to run both drivers in the gap after completing the first efforts, joined on track by only the MP Motorsport drivers.
Hauger took the top spot with 1:23.923, while MP Motorsport driver Jehan Daruvala lifted himself to third.
Bearman posted his first lap to go fourth, while Vesti was 0.7 down on the pole and eighth after his initial attempt.
With 10 minutes left, the next flurry of lap times arrived, and it was Pourchaire, Martins’ teammate and compatriot, that went to the top of the times next.
That was until Fittipaldi set a 1:23.623 to put himself first again, and Martins moved up to fourth. At the same time, American Juan Manuel Correa and Richard Verschoor of the Netherlands were sixth and seventh, respectively, for Van Amersfoort Racing.
In the final five minutes, Iwasa was up to second, 0.116 off Fittipaldi, while Bearman set purple sectors further back.
The Briton went to the top with a 1:23.546 after Doohan had gone fastest in the middle sector, leaving the Australian nurse 10th on his last effort.
Fittipaldi was narrowly beaten in second at the chequered flag with Doohan and Iwasa on the second row, third and fourth, respectively; Pourchaire was fifth with Hauger sixth.
Martins, Vesti, Jak Crawford, and Amaury Cordell completed the top 10, with the Invicta Virtuosi Racing driver lining up on the reverse grid pole for the sprint race on Saturday.
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