Formula 2: Kush Maini secures pole in Miami Qualifying
- Jasmin Low
- 1 hour ago
- 2 min read
Written by Jasmin Low
Formula 2 hit the track for its first competitive session in Miami, with Kush Maini converting positive momentum from Free Practice into an all-important pole position.
Free Practice recap
A time of 1:40.320 in Free Practice earned Hitech’s Colton Herta the top spot for the weekend’s opening session in front of his home crowd.
Free Practice experienced a few early interruptions, with a spin for Noel León at Turn 7 prompting a Virtual Safety Car. Soon after, his teammate Nikola Tsolov brought the session to a halt after stopping on track, marking a disaster start to the weekend for Campos Racing compounded by a lack of prior years’ data to assist in preparing the car for qualifying.
Kush Maini proved to be quick in practice, only being knocked from the top spot in the final two minutes before Laurens van Hoepen brought out the yellow flags, sealing the final order.
Qualifying: As it happened
Invicta Racing’s Rafael Câmara was the quickest of the lot throughout the first flying laps with a time of 1:40.441, over a tenth faster than Alex Dunne who occupied provisional second.
The rising track temperature proved to be a major factor throughout the session, placing high importance on the initial push-laps as the Supersoft tyres struggled to remain within the optimum window.
With only a few drivers managing to make improvements on their second flying lap, much of the field returned to pit lane to bolt on fresh tyres.
The session quietened down until the clock approached the final 10 minutes, with drivers beginning to punch in their final attempts at improving on their earlier times.
Nikola Tsolov was first across the line to and into provisional pole, with multiple improvements across the field seeing the top spot being passed between drivers.
Kush Maini put his ART fastest with a 1:39.888, breaking past the 1:40.000 barrier before being joined on the provisional front row by Câmara, who was 33-thousandths off of Maini’s time.
Rodin Motorsport’s duo of Dunne and Martinius Stenshorne held the provisional second row as the session drew closer to completion. With just over a minute remaining, smoke came pouring from Stenshorne’s car, bringing out the yellow flags and closing out the session in a similar fashion to Free Practice.
Dunne will serve a 5-place grid penalty for the Feature Race following his incident involving Stenshorne in Melbourne, whilst Rafael Villagómez has been handed 10-place penalties for both the Sprint and Feature races after a yellow flag infringement during practice.
Comments