QUALIFYING: Hadjar surges to Silverstone Pole for Campos Racing

Isack Hadjar took a hugely important Pole Position at Silverstone, as the Campos Racing driver led the pack on a 1:39.368, capitalising on an error by title rival and Championship leader Paul Aron that left the Hitech Pulse-Eight driver down in 12th following a spin.

ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins making it an all-French front row, while Dennis Hauger found a late improvement to secure P3 with his final lap for MP Motorsport.

With the threat of rain hanging over the session, drivers were out immediately on the Soft compound tyres to get an early lap on the board.

Home favourite Oliver Bearman recorded the initial time to beat, 1:40.918 putting him a tenth clear of Invicta Racing’s Kush Maini in the early running, until Aron split the pair to go P2, 0.040s down on the PREMA.

Hauger was next to go quickest, 1:40.554 but that was beaten twice over. Zane Maloney slotted into P2 just behind Maini, who moved up to first on his next lap. Aron then found more time to go fastest on a 1:40.181 with 20 minutes left.

Drivers returned to pitlane at the midway point of the session for fresh Softs, waiting until the clock neared 10 minutes to go before returning to the circuit.

Getting his first lap on the second set of tyres underway, Aron suffered a spin at Turn 1, leaving him with major flatspots as everyone else improved.

Title rival Hadjar leapt up to Provisional Pole with a 1:39.368 in the Campos car.

Having been inside the top 10, Maloney lost a time for track limits to leave Aron in P10, but an improvement from Ritomo Miyata in the Rodin Motorsport car bumped the Championship leader out of the top 10.

Hadjar peeled into the pitlane with a minute and a half to go while the majority continued on their way for one final attempt.

Maloney put himself back into the top 10 on his final attempt, going ninth-fastest for Rodin, though he was one of the only improvements in the final minute.

Franco Colapinto ended up fourth for MP ahead of Bearman in P5. Gabriel Bortoleto followed ahead of DAMS Lucas Oil’s Jak Crawford, Maini, Maloney and Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who will start the Sprint Race from reverse grid Pole having ended the session P10.

The Formula 2 Sprint Race is set to get underway at 13:15 local time around Silverstone.