Martins tops red flag-shortened F2 Qualifying

Victor Martins has taken pole position in a truncated Formula 2 Qualifying session in Silverstone punctuated by two red flags.

Martins made the most of the limited running to top what effectively became a nine-minute outing after a heavy crash for Amaury Cordeel.

Jack Doohan will line up fourth, while championship leader Frederik Vesti could do no better than 10th.

A heavy crash at Copse for Cordeel drew an early red flag.

The Virtuosi driver, team-mate of Doohan, damaged both ends of his car but was able to radio to his team that he was okay.

The delay lasted 12 minutes, resuming with 20 minutes remaining.

It threw a cat among the pigeons for teams, who usually send their drivers out for an initial run before sitting idle through the middle of the session ahead of a late final push.

However, those plans were quickly thrown into disarray once more when a second red flag was thrown.

It followed a notice from race control that the Qualifying would end at 15:47 local time – 15 minutes after its resumption.

The flag was shown so officials could reset the session timing, leaving nine minutes to record their qualifying time.

Most had not recorded a representative lap, with Victor Martins fastest with a 1:40.576s.

Jack Doohan was only 10th, his best a 1:41.164s, while championship leader Frederik Vesti was without a time.

Predictably, the timing screen changed rapidly, Doohan rising to second with two minutes remaining.

Martins hung on to pole while Kush Maini was second. A late lap from Ayumu Iwasa saw the Japanese bump Doohan out of third, the Australian ending the session fourth.

Vesti ended up 10th a the chequered flag, the reverse grid pole for Saturday’s Sprint race.