PREMA Racing wrapped up an extremely close qualifying session as the FIA Formula 2 Championship went underway at Red Bull Ring. As the team worked to improve the car from a tough early practice session, Ollie Bearman secured P9 at the Austrian venue as both drivers consistently improved their lap times during the session.

Unfortunately, Kimi Antonelli could not gain the chemistry needed with the car and track and finished in P16. The team is now looking to make further progress ahead of Race 1, where Bearman will take off from the front row courtesy of the reverse-grid format from Qualifying.

3 OLLIE BEARMAN

“It was a tough qualy, very tight of course on a track like this, where you need to be perfect. Still, we are there or thereabouts. I lost a bit of time on my lap from hitting the rev limiter over a bump. Things like these are not good enough. We need to work on that because when you lose one tenth for something like this, you can be two or three positions down. I’m a bit disappointed about that, but I have a much better feeling with the car from this morning, which is good. We still need to do some fine-tuning, but considering the step we made, we can be happy with what we have done.”

Qualifying: P9
Fastest lap: 1:15.900

4 KIMI ANTONELLI

“Difficult qualifying to be honest. I think on set 2, I didn’t make the step I should have made. I’m pretty disappointed, but we see what we can do in the races.”

Qualifying: P16
Fastest lap: 1:16.158

Source | Photo: PREMA Racing