Arvid Lindblad becomes F2's youngest pole sitter in shock Barcelona qualifying

Written by Vyas Ponnuri

Campos Racing's Arvid Lindblad turned practice into perfect in Friday's qualifying session, converting his practice pace into a maiden pole position at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, becoming the championship's youngest pole-sitter.

Lindblad became F2's youngest pole sitter | Credit: Dutch Photo Agency/Red Bull Content Pool

The Briton remained largely untroubled once he took to the track, maintaining some distance to the rest of the pack, an ominous sign for the weekend's races.

It was a session of surprises, with established contenders falling by the wayside, with PREMA Racing's Sebastián Montoya joining Lindblad on the front row, with Kush Maini and Roman Staněk netting second row grid spots for Sunday's race.

Alex Dunne, who carries a hefty13-place grid drop into the sprint as a result of his Monaco lap 1 crash and running into Victor Martins' in the pit lane in free practice, finished fifth in the session, before penalties will be applied.

Richard Verschoor continued his form from Monaco into Spain, grabbing sixth on the road for MP Motorsport, ahead of Jak Crawford's DAMS, with championship leader Luke Browning managing eighth in qualifying.

AIX Racing's Joshua Dürksen recovered to take ninth in the session, with Staněk's teammate Leonardo Fornaroli taking tenth in the session. However, once Dunne's penalties will be applied, home hero Pepe Martí finds himself on reverse grid pole for the Saturday sprint.

AS IT UNFOLDED

Drivers take to the track for qualifying | Credit: Formula 2 via X

The 30-minute qualifying session commenced with Max Esterson setting the first lap on the board for Trident, a steady 1:26.388, kicking off the lap count. However, the big hitters soon made their way out onto the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Rodin Motorsport's Alex Dunne, carrying a 13-place grid drop for the sprint after a messy Monaco feature race, then lowered the benchmark, setting a 1:25.905, before Invicta's Leonardo Fornaroli bettered his lap time by over 0.15s.

Track limits already claimed its first victim only a handful of minutes in, with home hero Pepe Martí already losing his best lap time after understeering into the gravel on the exit of the fast turn 13. A further adventure in the high speed turn 9 cost the Spaniard yet another fast lap, leaving him at the tail end of the grid.

While drivers did two warm-up laps before setting off on a flying lap, the times did start to come through. Martí's teammate Arvid Lindblad, who had topped free practice earlier, set a stellar 1:25.492, going a quarter of a second ahead of Fornaroli's lap.

Lower down, Jak Crawford and Ritomo Miyata put themselves into the top 3 on the ladder, the latter having gone well around Barcelona in his debut F2 season in 2024 too.

Halfway into the session, Lindblad led the timesheets, from Fornaroli and Miyata, revelling at being the quickest ART in qualifying for the first time in 2025. On the contrary, Martins, who did the FP1 session for Williams earlier in the day, managed only the tenth fastest time.

Track limits claimed more victims, with AIX Racing's Joshua Dürksen losing his quickest lap time on the road. The Paraguayan took to the track to set a banker lap, moving up to 17th in the ladder, before returning to the pits.

With under eight minutes to go, drivers returned to the 2.894 mi (4.657 km) circuit for one final fast run, to set the grid order for the weekend's races.

Martins, eager to keep his impressive top 3 qualifying record in 2025 alive, took to the track for his final lap. The Frenchman set a 1:25.860, initially up to fifth, before slipping down the order as drivers lit up the track with fastest sector times.

Lindblad was seemingly untroubled and unfazed during qualifying | Credit: Formula 2 via X

While the DAMS duo of Jak Crawford and Kush Maini attempted to breach Lindblad's lap time, they couldn't do so, with the Indian coming only 0.018 seconds from a potential pole position.

He would have to keep an eye on Sebastian Montoya though. The Colombian, newly inducted onto Fernando Alonso's A14 management team, did enough to move ahead of Lindblad, albeit briefly. The 17-year-old, head and shoulders clear in the session, put in a mind blowing lap to take pole in Barcelona, setting a 1:25.180, maintaining his advantage of nearly 0.250s to the rest.

Behind them, the likes of Invicta Racing's Roman Staněk nailed a strong fourth on the grid, while Dürksen recovered from a poor first half to net ninth on the grid. Turn 9 once again claimed the fast laps of Montoya's teammate Gabriele Minì and Van Amersfoort Racing's Rafael Villagómez, leaving them towards the rear of the time sheets.

The top three in qualifying all held a connection to India, with Lindblad hailing from Indian descent, Montoya's PREMA Racing running in Mumbai Falcons colours, while Maini himself races under the Indian tricolour in the championship.

An exciting session full of surprises, and here's the final classification from qualifying in Barcelona:

Final Classification: Qualifying at Barcelona

1. Arvid Lindblad (Campos Racing)

2. Sebastián Montoya (PREMA Racing)

3. Kush Maini (DAMS)

4. Roman Staněk (Invicta Racing)

5. Alex Dunne (Rodin Motorsport)*

6. Richard Verschoor (MP Motorsport)

7. Jak Crawford (DAMS)

8. Luke Browning (Hitech TGR)

9. Joshua Dürksen (AIX Racing)

10. Leonardo Fornaroli (Invicta Racing)

11. Pepe Martí (Campos Racing)

12. Dino Beganovic (Hitech TGR)

13. Ollie Goethe (MP Motorsport)

14. Ritomo Miyata (ART Grand Prix)

15. Victor Martins (ART Grand Prix)

16. Max Esterson (Trident)

17. Amaury Cordeel (Rodin Motorsport)

18. Gabriele Minì (PREMA Racing)

19. Sami Meguetounif (Trident)

20. Cian Shields (AIX Racing)

21. John Bennett (Van Amersfoort Racing)

22. Rafael Villagómez (Van Amersfoort Racing)