Kazim Vasiliauskas snatches pole for race two
Lithuanian driver pips Philipp Eng and Tom Gladdis to race two pole
Kazim Vasiliauskas claimed a dramatic pole position for
tomorrow's second Formula Two race at Brands Hatch,
the Lithuanian setting a time of 1:16.061s to beat Philipp Eng
and the impressive Tom Gladdis to the front spot.
Eng had set the early pace in what turned out to be a disjointed
second qualifying session at Brands Hatch, with a late red flag
period disrupting several drivers' hot laps. With just three boosts
available over the 30 minutes, that meant many were unable to
improve when the session restarted.
Kazim Vasiliauskas took full advantage of the confusion to storm
to the top of the timesheets with little over two minutes of the
session remaining. Eng went on to complete his personal best lap to
move back up the order and into second, just over seven hundredths
of a second slower than Kazim's benchmark.
Whilst Kazim and Eng will share the front row for tomorrow's
race, one of the more staggering displays came from Tom Gladdis in
third. The Briton had been on to set a 1:15.8s lap time and clinch
his first ever F2 pole when the red flags came out following a
heavy shunt by Parthiva Sureshwaren at Westfield.
Undeterred, Gladdis returned to the circuit following the
restart in what was seemingly a tough task to improve his times.
The Briton did exactly that however, producing a non-boost
qualifying lap that was good enough for third on the grid.
Jolyon Palmer briefly held fourth, but the championship leader
was jumped by Sergey Afanasiev in the final minute. Will Bratt
continued his good form to move into sixth, just 0.034s behind
Palmer.
Dean Stoneman meanwhile was one of the main casualties of the
red flag period, which coincided with the exact lap he had decided
to use all three boosts. Stoneman elected not to go out again,
instead saving his tyres for tomorrow's race, and he slipped down
the order to seventh as a result.
Stoneman will share the fourth row with Italy's Nicola De Marco,
while a stellar last gasp effort from Armaan Ebrahim - which saw
the Indian pilot set the fastest time of anyone in sector three -
promoted him into ninth as the session drew to a close. Mihai
Marinescu rounds out what has been one of the closest top tens this
season - the Romanian finishing just over half a second off
Vasiliauskas' ultimate benchmark.
FIA Formula Two Championship - Brands Hatch, UK -
Qualifying Two - Overall Classification:
1. Kazim Vasiliauskas, 1:16.061s
2. Philipp Eng, +0.076s
3. Tom Gladdis, +0.103s
4. Sergey Afanasiev, +0.176s
5. Jolyon Palmer, +0.256s
6. Will Bratt, +0.290s
7. Dean Stoneman, +0.324s
8. Nicola De Marco, +0.426s
9. Armaan Ebrahim, +0.501s
10. Mihai Marinescu, +0.547s