Theo Pourchaire Clinches Pole for 2021 F2 Monaco Feature Race

ART GP’s Theo Pourchaire has claimed pole position for 2021 F2 Monaco Feature Race following a brilliant split-qualifying session. 

Pourchaire set the overall pole time of 1m 20.985 to top Group A and pole position as F2 split Qualifying into two groups with all 11 drivers in Group A claiming the odd-numbered grid slots ahead of those in Group B.

The rookie will be joined on the front-row for Saturday’s afternoon (22 May 2021) Feature Race by Robert Shwartzman, who topped Group B ahead of Carlin’s Dan Ticktum.

Thursday’s F2 action though saw plenty of drama in Practice, so here is a full roundup of the action across Practice and Qualifying.

 

Practice

Embed from Getty Images

Christian Lundgaard was first driver out on track after a five minute delay to Practice yet the action was halted early, as Trident’s Marino Sato stopped on the run towards Beau Rivage with a mechanical issue to trigger a four minute red flag.

Once the session resumed, Campos’ Ralph Boschung set the initial pace with only Virtuosi’s Felipe Drugovich briefly bettering the Swiss driver’s lap time.

The session however was halted for a second time after Boschung’s teammate, Gianluca Petecof suffered a fiery engine blow-out right up through Beau Rivage which caused smoke to briefly block visibility as the red flag was shown for six minutes.

Shortly after a second resumption, Bent Viscaal put his Trident wide on entry into Rascasse to cause a Virtual Safety Car, with no further disruptions thereafter for rest of Practice.

Hitech GP’s Juri Vips proceeded to set the pace as he lowered the benchmark twice to an eventual 1m 22.628, which was ultimately only bettered by Robert Shwartzman and Dan Ticktum as Vips fell to third at the flag.

Shwartzman therefore topped the session with 1m 22.041 on ultra-soft tyres ahead of Ticktum on super-soft tyres, as Vips finished third ahead of Drugovich, Oscar Piastri, Boschung, Liam Lawson, Marcus Armstrong, Guanyu Zhou and Roy Nissany.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Robert Shwartzman	PREMA	1m 22.041
2	Dan Ticktum	Carlin	+ 0.523
3	Juri Vips	Hitech GP	+ 0.587
4	Felipe Drugovich	UNI-Virtuosi	+ 0.622
5	Oscar Piastri	PREMA	+ 0.939
6	Ralph Boschung	Campos	+ 0.978
7	Liam Lawson	Hitech GP	+ 1.212
8	Marcus Armstrong	DAMS	+ 1.323
9	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi	+ 1.403
10	Roy Nissany	DAMS	+ 1.482
11	Richard Verschoor	MP Motorsport	+ 1.514
12	Lirim Zendeli	MP Motorsport	+ 1.544
13	Jack Aitken	HWA Racelab	+ 1.558
14	Theo Pourchaire	ART GP	+ 1.638
15	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	+ 1.788
16	David Beckmann	Charouz	+ 1.973
17	Guilherme Samaia	Charouz	+ 2.707
18	Christian Lundgaard	ART GP	+ 3.377
19	Gianluca Petecof	Campos	+ 3.952
20	Bent Viscaal	Trident	+ 6.855
21	Alessio Deledda	HWA Racelab	+ 7.314
22	Marino Sato	Trident	No Time Set

 

Qualifying

Due to the tight nature of Circuit de Monaco, F2 decided to split the 22 car field into two groups of 11 to avoid traffic congestion with even-numbered cars in Group A and those in odd-numbered cars participating in Group B.

Those in the group that contains the eventual pole sitter will line up in odd-numbered grid slots for Saturday afternoon’s Feature Race, with those in the losing group lined up on the even-numbered side of the grid.

Qualifying Group A

A quiet start to the session saw everyone opt for one or two sighting laps before pitting ahead of a two-lap flying run to decide their Group A order.

Drugovich emerged quickest after the first set of laps but Pourchaire was able to push hard and find further time across both laps to ultimately set a 1m 20.985 ahead of Piastri by 0.458s as Hitech’s Juri Vips settled for third quickest as Nissany and Drugovich rounded out the top five.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Theo Pourchaire	ART GP	1m 20.985
2	Oscar Piastri	PREMA	+ 0.458
3	Juri Vips	Hitech GP	+ 0.538
4	Roy Nissany	DAMS	+ 1.117
5	Felipe Drugovich	UNI-Virtuosi	+ 1.146
6	Jehan Daruvala	Carlin	+ 1.259
7	David Beckmann	Charouz	+ 1.600
8	Bent Viscaal	Trident	+ 1.842
9	Lirim Zendeli	MP Motorsport	+ 1.948
10	Gianluca Petecof	Campos	+ 2.359
11	Jack Aitken	HWA Racelab	+ 2.368

 

Qualifying Group B

………………………………………………..

Like Group A, everyone in Group B opted for one or two sighting laps before pitting ahead of their final runs.

Ticktum set the first representative lap of 1m 23.390 but was swiftly displaced by Armstrong and Christian Lundgaard before Boschung went quickest only for Zhou to top first fliers with 1m 22.306.

Some drivers went on to squeeze two further laps out of their ultra-soft tyres with Shwartzman ultimately going fastest with 1m 21.403, ahead of Ticktum, Boschung, Lundgaard and Zhou who round out the top five in this group.

Lawson was sixth quickest ahead of Armstrong, Richard Verschoor, Sato, Guilherme Samaia and Alessio Deledda.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Robert Shwartzman	PREMA	1m 21.403
2	Dan Ticktum	Carlin	+ 0.186
3	Ralph Boschung	Campos	+ 0.451
4	Christian Lundgaard	ART GP	+ 0.474
5	Guanyu Zhou	UNI-Virtuosi	+ 0.509
6	Liam Lawson	Hitech GP	+ 0.538
7	Marcus Armstrong	DAMS	+ 0.765
8	Richard Verschoor	MP Motorsport	+ 1.355
9	Marino Sato	Trident	+ 2.688
10	Guilherme Samaia	Charouz	+ 2.899
11	Alessio Deledda	HWA Racelab	+ 6.341

Pourchaire therefore took his maiden F2 pole position with Group A filling the odd-numbered positions for the Feature Race on Saturday afternoon, whilst Shwartzman will head up Group B in the even-numbered grid positions as the Russian completes the front row.

This achievement also makes the Frenchman the youngest-ever pole-sitter in F2 history at just 17 years old.

Zhou though will start Friday’s (21 May) opening Sprint Race from pole by virtue of clinching tenth position under this Monaco Qualifying format, with Felipe Drugovich alongside him in a UNI-Virtuosi front row lock-out.