Silverstone F2: Ilott denies Lundgaard maiden pole

Virtuosi’s Ilott claimed his second pole of the year with a 1m39.062s lap, which denied Renault junior Christian Lundgaard his maiden pole position by just over a tenth of a second. 

Lundgaard put ART Grand Prix at the top of the timesheets after the first qualifying runs, but Ilott was able to displace the Danish driver with an impressive late effort.  

Ex-Red Bull junior Ilott languished down in 12th place after his opening run, but found over six-tenths on his second run to rise to the top. 

His pole position was confirmed when DAMS’ Sean Gelael spun at Copse and brought out yellow flags that denied the likes of Ilott’s teammate Guanyu Zhou – who had set the fastest first sector – a chance at completing their laps.  

Ilott was forced to start from the pitlane in last Saturday’s feature race at the circuit when he stalled from the front row at the start of the formation lap. 

He battled back to fifth place with a damaged car and would have taken the championship lead on the next day, had he not spun out of second place in the sprint race.  

Series rookie Lundgaard will start from the front row of the grid for the first time in his short F2 career, while Williams F1 reserve driver Jack Aitken will line-up from a season’s best third place. 

DAMS’ Dan Ticktum, who earned his maiden F2 victory in last Sunday’s reverse-grid sprint race, matched his best qualifying effort of the year in fourth place.  

Series veteran Luca Ghiotto was fifth fastest for Hitech Grand Prix with his 2019 teammate Zhou rounding out the top six.  

Ex-Force India tester Nikita Mazepin will line-up seventh on the grid at the circuit where he took a dominant first F2 win last Saturday.  

Ferrari junior Mick Schumacher topped practice for the first time, but could only manage eighth place on the grid after running slightly wide at the exit of Becketts on his final flying lap.  

Haas F1 reserve driver Louis Deletraz (Charouz Racing System) was ninth ahead of Red Bull junior Yuki Tsunoda (Carlin), who rounded out the top 10. 

Championship leader Robert Shwartzman continued to struggle at Silverstone with the 11th fastest time for Prema, just ahead of last week’s first-time polesitter Felipe Drugovich (MP Motorsport). 

Lundgaard’s ART GP teammate Marcus Armstrong slumped to 19th in the session, with his fastest time over 1.2s adrift of Ilott’s benchmark.  

Silverstone F2: Qualifying results:

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	4	Callum Ilott	UNI-Virtuosi	1'39.062
2	6	Christian Lundgaard	ART Grand Prix	1'39.177	0.115
3	9	Jack Aitken	Campos Racing	1'39.278	0.216
4	2	Dan Ticktum	DAMS	1'39.326	0.264
5	25	Luca Ghiotto	HitechGP	1'39.362	0.300
6	3	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi	1'39.394	0.332
7	24	Nikita Mazepin	HitechGP	1'39.410	0.348
8	20	Mick Schumacher	Prema Powerteam	1'39.448	0.386
9	11	Louis Deletraz	Charouz Racing System	1'39.474	0.412
10	7	Yuki Tsunoda	Carlin	1'39.494	0.432
11	21	Robert Shwartzman	Prema Powerteam	1'39.525	0.463
12	15	Felipe Drugovich	MP Motorsport	1'39.526	0.464
13	12	Pedro Piquet	Charouz Racing System	1'39.621	0.559
14	23	Marino Sato	Trident	1'39.679	0.617
15	1	Sean Gelael	DAMS	1'39.783	0.721
16	8	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	1'39.790	0.728
17	14	Nobuharu Matsushita	MP Motorsport	1'39.961	0.899
18	16	Artem Markelov	HWA AG	1'40.094	1.032
19	5	Marcus Armstrong	ART Grand Prix	1'40.299	1.237
20	17	Giuliano Alesi	HWA AG	1'40.485	1.423
21	22	Roy Nissany	Trident	1'40.615	1.553
22	10	Guilherme Samaia	Campos Racing	1'41.061	1.999
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