Pourchaire storms to maiden Formula 2 pole in Monaco
Running in Group A, Pourchaire’s 1m20.985s proved to be untouchable as the ART Grand Prix driver was over 0.5s clear of his nearest challenger - Oscar Piastri.
Robert Shwartzman got closer than his Prema teammate in the second qualifying group, topping Group B, although he was still over 0.4s down on Pourchaire’s impressive benchmark.
Due to how tight and narrow the Monaco circuit is, qualifying was split into two groups.
Those who race with even numbers took part in Group A, while the odd-numbered drivers were in Group B.
To avoid any unfair advantages such as track temperatures or weather, the times of each session will not be compared against each other to make the grid.
Thus, Pourchaire will line up on pole position as he set the fastest time in qualifying, while Shwartzman will start second, having topped Group B.
Piastri will start Saturday’s feature race third having set the second-fastest time in Group A, ahead of the second-placed driver in Group B - Robert Shwartzman.
The rest of the grid is sorted in the same way with Juri Vips set to start from fifth in the lead Hitech GP car.
Ralph Boschung, Roy Nissany and Christian Lundgaard rounded out the top eight.
UNI-Virtuosi Racing will be left disappointed with its qualifying showing in the principality, Felipe Drugovich and Guanyu Zhou managing ninth and tenth respectively.
While there is no F1 action on Fridays in Monaco, the first sprint race will take place in the afternoon.
The top ten from qualifying will be reversed and that will decide the grid for the first sprint race.
The second sprint race of the weekend and the feature race will take place on Saturday.
