Drugovich takes pole with late lap in disrupted F2 qualifying

Felipe Drugovich put in a late flying lap to take pole position for the F2 feature race after a stop-start session that was interrupted by three red flags.

The first red flag came just after Jake Hughes had put his Van Amersfoort to the top of the timesheets by less than a tenth of a second after the ART Grand Prix of Alfa Romeo junior driver Theo Pourchaire came to a halt with fire coming out of the engine bay.

When the session resumed, Campos driver Ralph Boschung was on course to better Hughes' time by almost half a second but the red flags were thrown once again, this time to allow for the recovery of the Carlin of Logan Sargeant after the American crashed into the barriers at turn 17.

Following a second lengthy wait for the marshals to clear the hazard, the track once again went green with 12 minutes left on the clock.

The DAMS of Ayumu Iwasa lit up the timing screen as he went provisionally fastest, but the Japanese driver's time at the top was short-lived as Marcus Armstrong lapped his Hitech marginally quicker.

Boschung set a purple first sector once again but lost time in the final sector as the ART Grand Prix of Frederik Vesti failed to spot the Campos in his mirrors as he lined up to start his own flying lap.

A final red flag was then thrown after a technical issue saw the session stopped and the medical car deployed in error.

When the green flags flew, Drugovich used the clear track to go six-tenths faster than Armstrong while the Trident of Richard Verschoor followed him through into P2. Alpine Academy driver Jack Doohan overcame traffic to go P3 with his final lap.

F2 Saudi Arabia qualifying results

1. Felipe Drugovich [MP Motorsport] 1:40.422

2. Richard Verschoor [Trident] +0.226

3. Jack Doohan [Virtuosi] +0.602

4. Marcus Armstrong [Hitech] +0.628

5. Ralph Boschung [Campos] +0.635

6. Liam Lawson [Carlin] +0.720

7. Ayumu Iwasa [DAMS] +0.772

8. Calan Williams [Trident] +1.047

9. Juri Vips [Hitech] +1.111

10. Jake Hughes [Van Amersfoort] +1.116

11. Dennis Hauger [PREMA] +1.288

12. Clement Novalak [MP Motorsport] +1.288

13. Roy Nissany [DAMS] +1.549

14. Marino Sato [Virtuosi] +1.756

15. Jehan Daruvala [PREMA] +1.759

16. Enzo Fittipaldi [Charouz] +2.098

17. Frederik Vesti [ART Grand Prix] +2.483

18. Olli Caldwell [Campos] +2.698

19. Logan Sargeant [Carlin] +2.838

20. Amaury Cordeel [Van Amersfoort] +4.015

21. Theo Pourchaire [ART Grand Prix] +4.314

22. Cem Bolukbasi [Charouz] DNQ

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