MP Motorsport’s Dennis Hauger triumphed during qualifying at Spielberg on Friday as he grabbed his second pole of 2024. He beat AIX Racing’s Joshua Dürksen to the honour by just eight-thousandths of a second and Invicta’s Gabriel Bortoleto by one tenth. Afterwards, Feeder Series spoke to both drivers about their chances in the races this weekend.

By Steven Walton

On Friday in Spielberg, Formula 2’s pole position was decided by less than a tenth of a second for the fourth round in a row. Hauger took pole by 0.008s, beating Dürksen and Invicta Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto.

Campos Racing’s Isack Hadjar set the pace initially, but he returned to the pits about 10 minutes into the session with smoke pouring from his engine. Hadjar took no further part in qualifying, though his initial lap was still good enough to bag seventh on the grid.

Points leader Paul Aron made a mistake on his final qualifying lap, running wide at turn six, skipping over the gravel and spinning onto the grass. He finished fifth.

‘A track where a lot of things can happen’

None of the top three drivers from Spielberg qualifying have won a feature race this year. The most successful of the bunch is Hauger, who did win the sprint race in Jeddah and also took pole position in Melbourne.

Asked about his chances on Sunday in Spielberg, Hauger told Feeder Series, “I think the pace is good, the race pace is there.”

“It’s a track where a lot of things can happen, so it’s about being smart and doing the right things and staying calm.

“We’ll see how it is tomorrow and try to work from there and then try to make it on Sunday,” he said.

Hauger’s last race starting from pole position – back in Melbourne – did not go to plan, as he crashed heavily shortly after a pit stop on Lap 10.

Asked by Feeder Series if the crash was playing on his mind, Hauger said he was not thinking about it. 

“I’m not going to let that happen again.”

‘All of us have great pace’

Second place in Spielberg marked the best qualifying result of the season for Dürksen. 

Asked by Feeder Series about how he could win on Sunday, he joked, “My secret, I won’t tell, because then I won’t win.”

Dürksen said both himself as well as Hauger and Bortoleto were capable of winning.

“I think all of us have great pace, I mean the whole grid actually is quite fast, so let’s see. Austria is a race track where a lot of overtaking manoeuvres are possible, so this of course will make it really entertaining, really interesting,” he said.

“I think it won’t be clear tomorrow who will win, but of course all of them are really quick and everybody will have a big chance to win.”

Also briefly speaking on the topic, Bortoleto was concise about how to pick up victory in Spielberg.

“It’s just about doing a good start I believe and trying to follow the pack, trying to understand what the others are doing, doing the best job you can with the tyres and let’s see how things go.”

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency