Pourchaire on pole after dominating F2 qualifying

A standout performance from Theo Pourchaire saw the Frenchman dominate qualifying to take pole for Sunday’s F2 Championship race.

Pourchaire recorded a time 0.7s faster than ART team-mate Victor Martins to secure pole position for the F2 Feature encounter.

Meanwhile, Jack Doohan will start a lowly 17th, unable to make his final flying lap count in the closing seconds of the session.

It was a difficult session for the Australian’s Virtuosi Racing squad with team-mate Amaury Cordeel only two places ahead.

Doohan heads into this year’s F2 campaign among the favourites for the title, an objective that has been set for him by paymasters Alpine.

Pourchaire is also among the expected title contenders, while Martins is a rookie in the competition and, like Doohan, part of the Alpine Academy.

Richard Verschoor claimed third and will be joined on the second row by Red Bull junior Dennis Hauger.

Mercedes junior Frederik Vesti was fifth-fastest but picked up a three grid place penalty for impeding Arthurt Leclerc.

That would have translated to sixth for the Spring race, which now becomes ninth.

Qualifying determined the grid for both races, setting the complete starting order for Sunday’s Feature.

The line-up for Saturday’s Sprint race sees the top 10 inverted, leaving Ralph Boschung on pole position ahead of Roman Stanek.

That encounter is slated to begin at 19:15 local time (03:15 AEDT) while the fastest qualifying time sees Pourchaire take the lead of the drivers’ championship courtesy of the two bonus points for the accomplishment.

Points run from first to 10th in the Sprint race, with a further bonus point for the driver who records the fastest lap – provided they finish in the points-paying places.

Results: Formula 2 Qualifying, Bahrain

Pos	Num	Driver	Team	Time
1	5	Theo POURCHAIRE	ART Grand Prix	1:40.903
2	6	Victor MARTINS	ART Grand Prix	1:41.654
3	22	Richard VERSCHOOR	Van Amersfoort Racing	1:41.803
4	1	Dennis HAUGER	MP Motorsport	1:41.831
5	7	Frederik VESTI	PREMA Racing	1:41.897
6	24	Kush MAINI	Campos Racing	1:41.927
7	11	Ayumu IWASA	DAMS	1:41.934
8	12	Arthur LECLERC	DAMS	1:41.973
9	20	Roman STANEK	Trident	1:41.988
10	25	Ralph BOSCHUNG	Campos Racing	1:42.010
11	2	Jehan DARUVALA	MP Motorsport	1:42.017
12	8	Oliver BEARMAN	PREMA Racing	1:42.026
13	4	Enzo FITTIPALDI	Rodin Carlin	1:42.049
14	10	Isack HADJAR	Hitech Pulse-Eight	1:42.092
15	15	Amaury CORDEEL	Invicta Virtuosi Racing	1:42.092
16	23	Juan Manuel CORREA	Van Amersfoort Racing	1:42.109
17	14	Jack DOOHAN	Invicta Virtuosi Racing	1:42.112
18	3	Zane MALONEY	Rodin Carlin	1:42.185
19	9	Jak CRAWFORD	Hitech Pulse-Eight	1:42.234
20	17	Brad BENAVIDES	PHM Racing by Charouz	1:42.493
21	16	Roy NISSANY	PHM Racing by Charouz	1:42.502
22	21	Clement NOVALAK	Trident	1:42.570