Monaco F2: Albon takes pole by 0.01s as both Carlins crash
Alexander Albon beat Nyck de Vries to Formula 2 pole position in Monaco by 0.01s as Carlin duo Lando Norris and Sergio Sette Camara both crashed.
Alexander Albon, DAMS
Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
With the field traditionally split into two groups for qualifying in Monaco, Norris was the early leader in the first session.
But as he pushed to consolidate first place, Norris hit the wall on the exit of the second Swimming Pool chicane.
Despite heavily damaging his front wing, the Briton completed the lap and was second at that point, but pitted next time around and had no time to come out and improve again, eventually finishing ninth out of the 10 drivers in the group.
To add to his problems, on his in-lap, he looked to have impeded Albon, for which Norris is under investigation.
While that lap was ruined for Albon, the DAMS driver set a time of 1m21.727s before the chequered flag fell - enough to top the group, as he beat Artem Markelov and Antonio Fuoco by one and two tenths respectively.
In the end, Albon picked up his third consecutive pole position, as de Vries' fastest time in the second group fell just 0.01s short.
De Vries was another driver who had one of his laptimes compromised as he had to overtake Luca Ghiotto, only to improve later on and take the lead.
He demoted Sette Camara, who crashed into the wall at Ste Devote with just one minute remaining, putting an end to qualifying.
Sette Camara is nevertheless set to start fourth, behind Markelov and ahead of Fuoco.
Ghiotto was third in the second group and will start the feature race sixth, ahead of Arden's Maximilian Gunther, Trident duo Arjun Maini and Santino Ferrucci, and Ralph Boschung.
George Russell, who only did four laps in practice due to an engine problem, was ninth in the second group and only beat Nicholas Latifi, the duo set to start the feature race 18th and 20th respectively.
UPDATE: Gunther was disqualified for not stopping at the weighbridge and the German is forced to start the feature race from the pitlane.
Norris meanwhile was given a three-place grid penalty for impeding Albon.
Group A
Starting pos. | Driver | Team | Laps | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Alexander Albon | DAMS | 9 | 1'21.727 | |
3 | Artem Markelov | RUSSIAN TIME | 11 | 1'21.834 | 0.107 |
5 | Antonio Fuoco | Charouz Racing System | 10 | 1'21.948 | 0.221 |
7 | Santino Ferrucci | Trident | 10 | 1'22.408 | 0.681 |
9 | Roberto Merhi | MP Motorsport | 11 | 1'22.569 | 0.842 |
11 | Jack Aitken | ART Grand Prix | 11 | 1'22.597 | 0.870 |
13 | Sean Gelael | Prema Powerteam | 11 | 1'22.654 | 0.927 |
18 | Lando Norris | Carlin | 7 | 1'22.663 | 0.936 |
16 | Roy Nissany | Campos Racing | 10 | 1'23.796 | 2.069 |
DSQ | Maximilian Gunther | Arden International | 10 | 1'22.194 | 0.467 |
Group B
Starting pos. | Driver | Team | Laps | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2 | Nyck de Vries | Prema Powerteam | 10 | 1'21.737 | |
4 | Sergio Sette Camara | Carlin | 10 | 1'21.901 | 0.164 |
6 | Luca Ghiotto | Campos Racing | 10 | 1'22.241 | 0.504 |
8 | Arjun Maini | Trident | 10 | 1'22.263 | 0.526 |
10 | Ralph Boschung | MP Motorsport | 10 | 1'22.307 | 0.570 |
12 | Tadasuke Makino | RUSSIAN TIME | 9 | 1'22.420 | 0.683 |
14 | Nirei Fukuzumi | Arden International | 9 | 1'22.707 | 0.970 |
15 | Louis Deletraz | Charouz Racing System | 10 | 1'22.717 | 0.980 |
17 | George Russell | ART Grand Prix | 11 | 1'22.977 | 1.240 |
19 | Nicholas Latifi | DAMS | 10 | 1'23.157 | 1.420 |
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