PREMA’s Oscar Piastri claimed pole position for Sunday’s F2 Italian Feature Race at Monza, Italy.
Piastri finished fifth in Practice but delivered a dominant performance in Qualifying to take his second pole position of the season, which saw him extend his championship lead to nine points.
Jehan Daruvala, Guanyu Zhou, Liam Lawson and Felipe Drugovich rounded out the top five ahead of Ralph Boschung, Theo Pourchaire and Practice pacesetter – Dan Ticktum.
Full roundup of Friday’s F2 action at Monza, Italy across Practice and Qualifying.
Practice
A quiet start to the session saw majority of drivers opt for a minimum of two warm-up laps with Carlin’s Daruvala setting the pace in the opening ten minutes on 1m 34.363 from Boschung and Ticktum.
Lawson proceeded to displace Daruvala three minutes later by 0.642s before Ticktum displaced the New Zealander by 0.532s with a 1m 33.189 ahead of Daruvala and Pourchaire just seconds later.
Ticktum found a further 0.147s on his next flier to set a session-topping 1m 33.042 ahead of Pourchaire by 0.225s, after the Frenchman edged Daruvala out for second by 0.008s as David Beckmann and Piastri rounded out the top five.
Race simulations largely unfolded without drama except for Roy Nissany who suffered a massive engine blow-out as he exited Variante Ascari with 11 minutes left, thus causing a brief Virtual Safety Car as his car was removed.
Nissany’s DAMS teammate, Marcus Armstrong meanwhile failed to register a competitive lap time after a technical issue curtailed his session early, as he ultimately found himself 19.609s off the pace after posting just one lap time.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Dan Ticktum | Carlin | 1m 33.042 |
| 2 | Theo Pourchaire | ART GP | + 0.225 |
| 3 | Jehan Daruvala | Carlin | + 0.233 |
| 4 | David Beckmann | Campos | + 0.367 |
| 5 | Oscar Piastri | PREMA | + 0.383 |
| 6 | Marino Sato | Trident | + 0.462 |
| 7 | Christian Lundgaard | ART GP | + 0.466 |
| 8 | Bent Viscaal | Trident | + 0.620 |
| 9 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | + 0.641 |
| 10 | Liam Lawson | Hitech GP | + 0.679 |
| 11 | Juri Vips | Hitech GP | + 0.739 |
| 12 | Ralph Boschung | Campos | + 0.743 |
| 13 | Guanyu Zhou | UNI-Virtuosi | + 0.798 |
| 14 | Felipe Drugovich | UNI-Virtuosi | + 0.850 |
| 15 | Lirim Zendeli | MP Motorsport | + 0.885 |
| 16 | Jake Hughes | HWA Racelab | + 1.010 |
| 17 | Guilherme Samaia | Charouz | + 1.114 |
| 18 | Robert Shwartzman | PREMA | + 1.187 |
| 19 | Roy Nissany | DAMS | + 1.344 |
| 20 | Enzo Fittipaldi | Charouz | + 1.812 |
| 21 | Alessio Deledda | HWA | + 2.748 |
| 22 | Marcus Armstrong | DAMS | + 19.609 |
Qualifying
Hitech GP duo of Juri Vips and Liam Lawson led the pack out for the opening runs but it was Campos’ Ralph Boschung who set the pace after the first flying laps, as he posted 1m 32.609 which was 0.041s quicker than Ticktum.
Piastri however found time on his next lap to displace Boschung and Ticktum with a 1m 32.402 as Lawson and Felipe Drugovich rounded out the top five by the time everyone retreated to the pit-lane.
Final runs saw Piastri further improve to 1m 32.199 to secure his second consecutive pole position for F2’s Feature Race, which takes place on Sunday (12 September) and consequently extended his lead in the title race to nine points over Zhou.
Boschung lost second place to Daruvala, Zhou, Lawson and Drugovich but momentarily reclaimed second at the checkered flag, only for stewards to his lap time after he exceeded track limits which dropped the Swiss driver to sixth.
Pourchaire, Ticktum, Vips and Beckmann rounded out the top ten with Beckmann claiming reverse-grid pole for the opening Sprint Race tomorrow (11 September).
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Oscar Piastri | PREMA | 1m 32.199 |
| 2 | Jehan Daruvala | Carlin | + 0.041 |
| 3 | Guanyu Zhou | UNI-Virtuosi | + 0.057 |
| 4 | Liam Lawson | Hitech GP | + 0.184 |
| 5 | Felipe Drugovich | UNI-Virtuosi | + 0.210 |
| 6 | Ralph Boschung | Campos | + 0.354 |
| 7 | Theo Pourchaire | ART GP | + 0.387 |
| 8 | Dan Ticktum | Carlin | + 0.442 |
| 9 | Juri Vips | Hitech GP | + 0.476 |
| 10 | David Beckmann | Campos | + 0.500 |
| 11 | Lirim Zendeli | MP Motorsport | + 0.686 |
| 12 | Robert Shwartzman | PREMA | + 0.743 |
| 13 | Enzo Fittipaldi | Charouz | + 0.766 |
| 14 | Marino Sato | Trident | + 0.824 |
| 15 | Roy Nissany | DAMS | + 0.832 |
| 16 | Jake Hughes | HWA Racelab | + 0.844 |
| 17 | Marcus Armstrong | DAMS | + 0.855 |
| 18 | Bent Viscaal | Trident | + 0.881 |
| 19 | Christian Lundgaard | ART GP | + 0.956 |
| 20 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | + 0.994 |
| 21 | Guilherme Samaia | Charouz | + 1.279 |
| 22 | Alessio Deledda | HWA Racelab | + 1.995 |
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