F2 Bahrain: Pourchaire blitzes to pole by 0.75s over Martins

The Frenchman, who finished second in the drivers’ standings last year, put in a stunning lap to finish qualifying 0.7s clear of team-mate Victor Martins, who lines up second on his debut.

Having led practice earlier in the day, the championship favourite put in a 1m40.903s to take the front spot for Sunday’s feature race at the Sakhir Circuit.

Despite being in his third F2 season, it was just his second pole, the first having come in Monaco 2021.

Reigning F3 champion Martins will line up second for his debut F2 feature race, with Richard Verschoor in third for Van Amersfoort Racing.

Ralph Boschung took an early lead for Campos Racing, with his first flying lap a 1m42.010s before he was quickly demoted by Alfa Romeo F1 reserve driver Pourchaire, who went almost 0.5s quicker.

DAMS rookie Arthur Leclerc slotted into third place, with a 1m42.212s, before he was quickly demoted by Alpine Academy member Martins.

Fellow Alpine junior Jack Doohan, who enters the season as a title favourite, found clean air in a bid to find more time and went fourth quickest for Invicta Virtuosi Racing with a 1m42.112s.

But the risk failed to pay off for the Australian, who finished sixth in the standings last year, as he finished the session in 17th place behind Invicta Virtuosi Racing team-mate Amaury Cordeel.

As the pack emerged with fresh soft tyres, rookie Kush Maini went second fastest for Campos, with a 1m41.927s, before he was quickly demoted by Verschoor, 0.1s quicker.

Pourchaire then put in his pole-clinching lap, with his team-mate slotting in to second, with the rest of the field unable to match ART’s superior qualifying pace.

MP Motorsport’s Dennis Hauger, who won the F3 title in 2021, will line up fourth for Sunday’s race, with Frederik Vesti in fifth, having moved back to Prema from ART for 2023.

Maini starts sixth, with the DAMS pair of Ayumu Iwasa and Leclerc in seventh and eighth respectively.

Boschung will line up on reverse-grid pole for Saturday’s sprint race, with Trident rookie Roman Stanek behind him.

F2 Bahrain qualifying results

Cla	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	Theo Pourchaire	ART Grand Prix	1'40.903
2	Victor Martins	ART Grand Prix	1'41.654	0.751
3	Richard Verschoor	Van Amersfoort Racing	1'41.803	0.900
4	Dennis Hauger	MP Motorsport	1'41.831	0.928
5	Frederik Vesti	Prema Powerteam	1'41.897	0.994
6	Kush Maini	Campos Racing	1'41.927	1.024
7	Ayumu Iwasa	DAMS	1'41.934	1.031
8	Arthur Leclerc	DAMS	1'41.973	1.070
9	Roman Staněk	Trident	1'41.988	1.085
10	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	1'42.010	1.107
11	Jehan Daruvala	MP Motorsport	1'42.017	1.114
12	Oliver Bearman	Prema Powerteam	1'42.026	1.123
13	Enzo Fittipaldi	Rodin Carlin	1'42.049	1.146
14	Isack Hadjar	Hitech Pulse-Eight	1'42.092	1.189
15	Amaury Cordeel	Invicta Virtuosi Racing	1'42.092	1.189
16	Juan Manuel Correa	Van Amersfoort Racing	1'42.109	1.206
17	Jack Doohan	Invicta Virtuosi Racing	1'42.112	1.209
18	Zane Maloney	Rodin Carlin	1'42.185	1.282
19	Jak Crawford	Hitech Pulse-Eight	1'42.234	1.331
20	Brad Benavides	PHM Racing by Charouz	1'42.493	1.590
21	Roy Nissany	PHM Racing by Charouz	1'42.502	1.599
22	Clement Novalak	Trident	1'42.570	1.667
View full results