QUALIFYING: Dunne dominates to take superb Spa Francorchamps pole

Alexander Dunne picked up where he left off in Free Practice, where he was fastest, to take the Aramco Pole Position Award at this afternoon’s Spa Francorchamps Qualifying.

The Rodin Motorsport driver was in supreme form, as each lap he completed put him in P1, and with a final 1:57.151, he took P1 by over four-tenths to ART Grand Prix driver Ritomo Miyata in second and Invicta Racing’s Roman Stanek in third.

After the early installation laps, the first set of push laps came in and Luke Browning, one of the first to cross the line, went to the top on a 1:58.537 for Hitech TGR.

The fastest time changed hands multiple times before Dunne went quickest on a 1:58.340, eclipsing title rival Leonardo Fornaroli by just 0.003s.

The entire field then pushed on for a second lap on their Soft tyres and there were several personal best sectors being set.

Fornaroli improved to a 1:58.284 to go to P1, but only for a brief moment as Dunne set three purple sectors to retake the places on a 1:57.863, eclipsing the Invicta driver by 0.421s.

After pitting for another set of tyres, the drivers returned to the track with just under 10 minutes left in the session.

There were several improvements throughout the field, but no one could match Dunne, who completed a 1:57.151 to beat his closest challenger in Miyata, by 0.419s.

A number of drivers outside of the top 10 positions, including Championship leader Richard Verschoor in 11th, looked to push on for a second attempt but they could not improve.

This left Dunne on top for a second pole of the season, with Miyata second – his best Qualifying result in F2 – and Stanek in third ahead of the second ART car of Victor Martins.

Campos Racing teammates Arvid Lindblad and Josep María Martí were fifth and sixth, while Fornaroli ended up seventh, with Gabriele Minì eighth for PREMA Racing. Amaury Cordeel was ninth for Rodin, as MP Motorsport’s Oliver Goethe rounded out the top 10.

That means Goethe is set to line up on reverse grid pole for Saturday’s Spa-Francorchamps Sprint Race, which is set to get underway at 13:45 local time.