Hauger on pole, Antonelli on front row of the grid; lots of bad luck for Bearman

Dennis Hauger has taken pole for the Formula 2 feature race in Australia. MP Motorsport's Norwegian was just faster than Italian prodigy Kimi Antonelli, who gets to start from the front row of the grid for the first time. Richard Verschoor starts in third place. Oliver Bearman had a dramatic qualifying session.

The session had barely started in the local afternoon on Friday when a red flag was already waved. Victor Martins had skidded, not hitting a wall but stalling his engine. The Alpine Academy driver's car then had to be towed away, with unpleasant consequences for the Frenchman. In F2, there is now a rule that drivers who cause a red flag lose their time. At the time of the slide, Martins had just clocked a good time.

Once the light turned green again, Kimi Antonelli seemed to get the fastest time, but the Mercedes Academy youngster had gone a little too wide. As a result, he lost his time. In the end, the Italian posted the sixth fastest time. Much attention was also paid to his teammate at Prema, Oliver Bearman. Last weekend, the Briton was allowed to fill in in Formula 1, replacing Carlos Sainz at Ferrari. Once back in F2, he seemed to get no further than spot 14.

It must be added that Bearman was unlucky. Just as he was setting his fast lap in the closing stages of qualifying, Jak Crawford - apparently with a technical problem - spun off the track. Bearman had to get off the gas due to the yellow displayed and thus seemed to see a good starting position for the sprint and feature race go up in smoke.

Eventually, Crawford's crash led to the second red flag of the session. With just under four minutes on the clock, the drivers went out for a final fast lap. In it, Bearman, among others, went hunting for another good time. That did not come, as he was behind Enzo Fittipaldi, who crashed off the track. With another yellow flag, Bearman had to get off the gas again. He ended up finishing 16th fastest. Hauger, Antonelli and Verschoor were on track ahead of Fittipaldi, so they were able to improve their times.