A confident Jack Doohan was relieved to end his Formula 2 pole drought after securing top spot in qualifying at the Hungaroring on Friday.
The Australian claimed his first pole of 2023 and the fourth of his F2 career, ahead of Victor Martins and championship leader Frederik Vesti.
It’s a result that underscores the transformation Doohan’s season has undergone in recent events.
A sluggish start to the year left him and his team chasing their tails before resolving an underlying car issue in time for Monaco.
That has seen his results, and confidence, steadily improve, with Saturday’s performance his best of the season to date.
“I’m quite happy, to say the least,” Doohan said.
“Coming from being on pole in my maiden Formula 2 race to my second season, getting pole in Round 10, so it’s been quite a while.”
The key has been building back the confidence he lost in the early part of the season.
Doohan admits he and his engineer began to question themselves when he was battling a troublesome car.
With those issues now resolved and the car making sense once again, regaining that confidence has been a decisive factor.
“I think just having the confidence back with the team and myself really, with my engineer and me,” Doohan said when asked what’s changed.
“The car has been back to normal since Monaco – I’d say more so Barcelona – but after half a season or more of not really knowing what’s going on; engineer started questioning himself, I’m questioning myself and you can sort of start to drift away.
“So now that we’ve come back in together, and I have confidence in him, he has confidence in me.
“We had a car to deliver today and luckily, I did.”
Doohan will line up on pole for Sunday’s Formula 2 Feature race.
Before then, the F2 field will take in a reverse-top 10 Sprint on Saturday, starting at 14:15 local time (22:15 AEST).
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