Albon claims back-to-back F2 poles in Barcelona

Alexander Albon stormed to his second Formula 2 pole position in a row during a disrupted qualifying in Barcelona, as he finished 0.2 seconds clear of his nearest rival. 

Albon - who won the Baku feature race from pole - continued his fine form having topped Friday practice ahead of qualifying in Spain, sealing a commanding pole with a brilliant 1m28.142s to close the gap to championship leader Lando Norris.

Prema’s Nyck de Vries could only get within 0.2s of Albon’s time with a late improvement, with Luca Ghiotto also moving up the order in the closing stages to snatch third for Campos. 

The session was disrupted at the half-way mark when Haas development driver Santino Ferrucci suffered his second incident of the weekend by crashing into the Turn 9 barriers, bringing out the red flags. 

With Ferrucci’s Trident safety removed, the action resumed as Albon improved on his earlier time to extend his advantage at the top of the timesheets. The Anglo-Thai driver could have gone even faster had he not caught a gaggle of slower cars on the run to Turn 4. 

Jack Aitken finished fifth quickest as the lead ART Grand Prix driver, ahead of DAMS’ Nicholas Latifi, Tadasuke Makino and points leader Norris, who saw his championship advantage trimmed to just two points having only managed eighth for Carlin. 

MP Motorsport’s Ralph Böschung and Roberto Merhi rounded out the top 10, ahead of Louis Deletraz and Arden’s Maximillian Gunther. 

Carlin’s Sergio Sette Camara recovered from an early issue to seal 14th spot on the grid, pipping Roy Nissany and the second Prema of Sean Gelael.

Nirei Fukuzimi was 17th quickest for Arden with Trident’s Arjun Maini a low-key 18th. Artem Markelov continued his disappointing qualifying form having set a time only good enough for the last row of the grid alongside Ferrucci.