Kush Maini took his second career Formula 2 pole on the series’ first visit to Miami on Friday. The ART Grand Prix driver beat Invicta Racing’s Rafael Câmara by just 0.033 seconds, with Martinius Stenshorne of Rodin Motorsport just half a tenth away from the Indian driver in third.

By Martin Lloyd

Maini’s pole is a real milestone for both him and his ART team. He is the most experienced current F2 driver, yet he has not won a feature race and until now had only taken a single pole position, one inherited after original polesitter Oliver Bearman withdrew upon being called up to race in the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

ART, meanwhile, have a recent history of front-row starts, taking seven in 2025, six courtesy of Victor Martins. However, unfortunate incidents and a weakness in race pace meant they often failed to convert this qualifying pace into equally strong race results, finishing the year with just four podiums. 

No F2 driver had raced on the Miami international Autodrome before, but from the moment the championship kicked off its first-ever race weekend in North America, 25-year-old Maini had shown pace. He finished second in practice, just 0.016s behind Hitech pacesetter Colton Herta, and sat in the top five throughout the 30-minute qualifying session. 

“ART have been very strong in quali, like you’ve seen last year, and I think Victor [Martins] is a great driver as well,” Maini told Feeder Series in the post-race press conference. “Overall, in a new track, it’s a very level playing field, almost. 

“You have your simulation and it does matter how good it is, but as you’ve seen, someone like Rafa who’s on high downforce versus us on medium, it was three hundredths. I would say it’s a great leveller, a new track – you don’t even know what ride heights to run in the first run. You’re always learning more and more.”

Friday afternoon in Miami seemed to promise a chaotic session given that the drivers had only spent 45 minutes on the track beforehand in the morning practice session. In the 30-minute qualifying, though, each of the drivers kept their car on the track. 

Câmara started the session at the front, setting a 1:40.441 with 23:32 on the clock. Alex Dunne was the Brazilian’s closest challenger at a 0.102s margin after the first runs. The top two were secure as they headed into the traditional mid-session lull, with no driver able to displace them on the second flying laps of the first run – though Rafael Villagómez had improved to fourth behind Stenshorne. 

The drivers started their second runs with just 0.597s separating Câmara and Herta in 10th. The track had evidently improved between the first and second runs, with six drivers beating Câmara’s time before the 20-year-old had a chance to respond. Nikola Tsolov was the first to go quicker, beating Câmara by 0.176s with 5:29 remaining, before Nicolás Varrone and then Gabriele Minì overhauled him.

Then, with 4:57 remaining in the session, Maini broke the 1m40s barrier with a lap time of 1:39.888 to take provisional pole position. In a demonstration of Rodin’s strong underlying pace, Stenshorne and Dunne slotted into second and third respectively, and Dunne, 0.169s behind Maini, could even have taken pole had he not locked up at Turn 17 on his best lap. Câmara then set his time of 1:39.921 to pip the Rodins for second, but he could not beat Maini to the top spot. 

In theory, there would be another chance to beat Maini’s time, but this seemed unlikely given the tyres’ short lifespans. Any chance for drivers to set a better lap was eradicated by an engine failure for Stenshorne that brought out local yellows at Turn 16, preventing any driver from improving. In any event, Maini himself had already pulled into pit lane, believing that there was no more time to be found.

The session was marked by difficulty with tyre warm-up. The field elected to take two warm-up laps before their first flying lap of each run, but most drivers failed to improve on their second flyers. That pattern suggests rapid degradation of the soft tyre is likely in the races given the balmy Florida conditions. Current forecasts suggest potential highs of 34ºC on a scorching Saturday, while Sunday, even with heavy rain predicted, could bring temperatures as high as 27ºC.

Dunne qualified fourth, but he will start the feature race from ninth thanks to a five-place grid penalty for causing a collision with teammate Stenshorne in the Melbourne feature race. Behind him were Minì and Varrone. The latter put in an eye-catching performance to finish sixth in just his second weekend back in single-seater racing after five years exclusively in sports cars.

Joshua Dürksen, Câmara’s Invicta teammate, qualified seventh and will attempt to take his second consecutive sprint race win when he lines up fourth on Saturday’s grid. Oliver Goethe finished eighth, with Laurens van Hoepen and Tsolov rounding out the top 10.

Maini’s ART teammate, Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, qualified 12th. Meanwhile, practice pacesetter and home hero Herta – a seven-year veteran of IndyCar, the United States’ premier open-wheel category – could only qualify 14th after he failed to improve with his final lap.

Less than eight tenths of a second covered the top 20 drivers, with the 22-car grid separated by 1.269s, the smallest field spread since the 2024 Spielberg round.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency