Victor Martins stormed to pole position for the Silverstone Formula 2 feature race on Friday, beating out rival Alex Dunne by 0.065 seconds and Jak Crawford by 0.175s. The Williams junior spoke to Feeder Series alongside selected media at the post-session press conference about his astounding qualifying form.

By Martin Lloyd

Sunday’s feature race will involve a reversal of the now-infamous front row from the feature race at Monaco, where Dunne caused a multi-car pileup in an attempt to maintain the lead ahead of Martins into the first corner.

Since then, Dunne has continued to build his championship challenge, while Martins sits ninth in the standings. The Frenchman has qualified in the top three in 10 of the last 11 F2 rounds dating back to Baku last year, but he has not finished on the podium since his third-place finish in the feature race of round three this season at Jeddah. In addition to being an innocent party in the Monaco melée, he also lost out on points in Imola after stalling from third on the grid.

“I have seen some good stats from end of 2024 until today,” Martins told Feeder Series after the session. “I’ve been, I think, always in the top three just except Barcelona, but always in the top three, mostly top two, and then now on pole. For sure I just know how to put myself into the good mood, a good approach into qualifying, how to perform but how not to overdrive the car, and just be on the limit.”

ART Grand Prix driver Martins had not topped a qualifying session this season before Silverstone, but his pole position has felt inevitable since the early rounds of the season. He was elevated to pole in Melbourne after Gabriele Minì was penalised post-qualifying, but the feature race was cancelled because of heavy rain. 

“Sometimes when you do good qualis in a row, it’s just like, ‘Okay, I will just do the same again’, and then you have this confidence, you have no doubt that it will work again. And I think I’m exactly into that point. I just feel I’m always there,” Martins said. 

Going forward, he added, “I know I will have the car also to [qualify well] thanks to ART, who are giving me always the car to perform like this in quali. And then, as I said, I think it’s a good 50 percent on the mental side, just having the capability to put myself in the right window mentally. When you have one or two laps, sometimes it’s making the difference between one or another driver.”

Martins was the driver to beat throughout Friday’s running. The 24-year-old had first topped practice with a lap time of 1:41.699. In qualifying, he led the way early on with a 1:40.710, putting him 0.067s clear of closest challenger and championship leader Richard Verschoor after the sessions.

As drivers completed their first runs, the session was red flagged with 18:05 remaining after Amaury Cordeel spun at Club and found himself unable to continue. Cordeel will start both races from the back of the grid after being stripped of his lap time for being the sole cause of the red flag. His 1:41.069 put him fifth at the time and would have left him 17th overall.

When the session resumed, Dunne was the first to upset the order. The McLaren junior jumped from 12th to third with a 1:40.808, just 0.098s behind Martins, with 13:40 remaining.

Another seven minutes passed before further meaningful times were set as drivers waited in pit lane. When the final runs finally began, DAMS’ Crawford blitzed Martins’ time, setting a 1:39.971 to go 0.739s clear of the Frenchman’s best effort. But the Williams junior driver was soon back at the top, setting a 1:39.731 with 5:12 remaining to earn his second pole and sixth front-row start in eight rounds.

Only Dunne, Verschoor’s closest challenger in the standings, was able to come closer to Martins’ time with a 1:39.796, as Crawford rounded out the top three.  

Just behind was Invicta’s Roman Staněk, who qualified fourth for the feature in his best qualifying result of the season, followed by Prema Racing’s Sebastián Montoya and AIX Racing’s Joshua Dürksen. Verschoor did not improve on his early effort and ended up seventh, putting him alongside the Hitech of Dino Beganovic for both races.

Kush Maini, Crawford’s DAMS teammate, suffered damage on his first run but managed to qualify ninth. The Indian driver will share the front row on Saturday with Leonardo Fornaroli, who pipped Arvid Lindblad to 10th place and sprint race pole with the last meaningful lap of the session.

Track limits proved to be a thorn in drivers’ side throughout the session. Nine drivers lost their first lap times for putting all four wheels off the track, while Gabriele Minì only set an eligible time on his last lap to qualify a lowly 16th.

Ritomo Miyata suffered from mechanical issues throughout the session and did not set a lap time. He will line up 21st for both races with Cordeel’s demotion to the back of the grid.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency