Kimi Antonelli secured a front-row start for Sunday’s Feature Race in Qualifying for the FIA Formula 2 Championship in Melbourne. In a heavily disrupted session, featuring two red flags, the PREMA Racing driver posted his fastest lap time in his final possible opportunity to take P2 and his personal best result in the series so far.

Coming back to the team after missing the Jeddah races, Ollie Bearman had a troubled session and was eventually hampered by a technical issue, settling for P16. After having a tough time finding confidence with the first set of tyres, the British racer was looking good with the second one. However, he lost one lap with the red flag and was then eventually prevented from closing the final one.

Heading into the Sprint Race, Antonelli will take off from the 9th place on the grid, while Bearman will start the two races from row 8.

3 OLLIE BEARMAN

“It was a really difficult Qualifying session. I struggled to get a good feeling with the tyre on set one, but I felt we sorted it for set two. Unfortunately, we were quite unlucky with a red flag in the first lap and a technical problem in the second, which meant I could not complete the lap. It’s a shame, because honestly it was looking like a good one, fighting maybe not for pole, but at least for the top three. A bit disappointed, but we will do our best tomorrow and on Sunday.”

Qualifying: P16
Fastest lap: 1:30.570

4 KIMI ANTONELLI

“I’m quite happy with the result of the qualifying session, as it felt really good out there. I’m still making a few mistakes. I got really confident during the session and I overdrove a little bit which cost some lap time. Overall, the car felt better, and it was good to get P2. I’m not fully satisfied because I knew I could do better, but I’m happy to have more confidence in the car, especially pushing it in qualifying. The pace is good, now we will see what we can do in the races.”

Qualifying: P2
Fastest lap: 1:29.038

Source | Photo: PREMA Racing