Prema Racing driver Gabriele Mini clinched pole position for the opening Formula 2 Feature Race of 2025 after setting the fastest time at the Albert Park circuit.
ART Grand Prix racing driver Victor Martins qualified in second, with Jak Crawford finishing in third.
The Frenchman was the quickest driver in an interrupted Free Practice session to kick start the 2025 F2 season.
Alex Dunne, Oliver Goethe, Arvid Lindblad and Amaury Cordeel all suffered separate incidents in the opening session of the season.
Heading into Qualifying, a scandal involving six drivers had already seen multiple grid penalties handed out for both the Sprint Race and the Feature Race.
Crawford and Kush Maini from DAMS Lucas Oil, Cordeel and Dunne from Rodin Motorsport, plus Trident duo Sami Meguetounif and Max Esterson have been handed 10-place grid penalties.
The penalties were handed out after the three teams involved were found guilty of having an air pressure sensor installed by drilling spec parts to illegally measure aerodynamic loads in pre-season testing.
It allowed the teams to gather data illegally that other teams wouldn’t have.
Moving onto the action on track, Martins set the early pace with a 1:31.012s as contact between Goethe and Esterson occurred at Turn 13.
The American-British racing driver lost a part of his front wing after making contact with the MP Motorsport car.
Mini and Leonardo Fornaroli set lap times good enough for second and third, keeping Martins on his toes.
Soon after, his provisional pole position was snatched by multiple drivers.
First up, Joshua Durksen for AIX Racing momentarily went quickest before Martins improved, however, Crawford then set a fastest lap time of 1:30.184s.
Mini improved with a lap time of 1:30.178s to go quickest before Fornaroli shot up into first place.
The Invicta Racing driver improved once again with a lap time of 1:29.948s as he led from Mini in second, Crawford in third, Martins in fourth and Verschoor rounding off the top five with just over 10 minutes to go.
Lindblad for Campos Racing was struggling down in 16th place, as well as Sebastian Montoya down in 19th for Prema.
With the grid heading out for their final runs, Luke Browning improved to go into fourth before Martins regained provisional pole with a 1:29.523s.
Crawford narrowly missed out on beating Martins, as the American was 0.064s off his time.
Lindblad finally set a competitive time to go into sixth before others improved.
Mini went up into third, but his lap time was set during yellow flags in the final sector as his fellow Alpine junior Kush Maini spun in the DAMS car.
However, the Italian racing driver improved once again to go fastest with a lap time of 1:29.286s.
Verschoor initially went third before Mini went quicker to take pole position right as the session reached its conclusion.
With the chequered flag waved, Fornaroli went for a spin, but it was the man who finished runner-up to him in last season’s Formula 3 Championship who would go on to claim pole position.
Mini will start the first Feature Race of the season from pole with Martins in second place.
Crawford qualified in third but will start further back due to his grid penalty.
Verschoor set a lap time good enough for fourth place, and Dunne improved late on to go into fifth place, completing the top five.
Invicta’s Roman Stanek finished sixth, Dino Beganovic seventh for Hitech with his team-mate Browning in eighth.
Durksen finished in ninth, and the reigning F3 World Champion Fornaroli rounded off the top 10 to secure reverse-grid pole position for the Sprint Race.
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