Abu Dhabi F2: Russell edges towards title with pole

ART Grand Prix driver Russell takes four championship points for his fifth pole of his rookie F2 campaign, extending his lead over his only title rival Alexander Albon. 

The latter – the favourite for a Toro Rosso F1 seat next year – now trails by 41 points as he could only manage eighth in qualifying, meaning Russell only needs eighth to take the title in Saturday’s feature race. 

Prema’s Nyck de Vries ran in the mid-session gap where drivers usually regroup in the pits and took provisional pole, while Albon’s DAMS teammate Nicholas Latifi followed a similar strategy and moved into second.

But Russell’s 1m49.251s gave him a two-tenth cusion over de Vries and Latifi, as the latter was told to abort his last lap with an undiagnosed issue.

Artem Markelov took fourth – improving his Russian Time machine’s woeful handling from practice – while Russell’s ART teammate Jack Aitken rounded out the top five in his best qualifying since Budapest in July.

Recently announced Haas F1 junior driver Louis Deletraz was sixth, ahead of the McLaren-bound Lando Norris. 

Behind Albon, Tadasuke Makino (Russian Time) and Norris’s teammate and now fellow McLaren junior Sergio Sette Camara completed the top 10.

Makino showed strong pace throughout the session and was baulked by the errant car of Campos driver Luca Ghiotto early on, but recovered to set a respectable late lap. 

Red Bull F1 junior Dan Ticktum out-qualified Arden teammate and potential future Super Formula rival Nirei Fukuzumi by 0.4s in his first ever F2 qualifying session, going 14th quickest.

Qualifying results:

Pos.	#	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	8	George Russell	ART Grand Prix	1'49.251
2	4	Nyck de Vries	Prema Powerteam	1'49.541	0.290
3	6	Nicholas Latifi	DAMS	1'49.647	0.396
4	1	Artem Markelov	RUSSIAN TIME	1'49.869	0.618
5	7	Jack Aitken	ART Grand Prix	1'49.946	0.695
6	20	Louis Deletraz	Charouz Racing System	1'50.038	0.787
7	19	Lando Norris	Carlin	1'50.059	0.808
8	5	Alexander Albon	DAMS	1'50.155	0.904
9	2	Tadasuke Makino	RUSSIAN TIME	1'50.180	0.929
10	18	Sergio Sette Camara	Carlin	1'50.187	0.936
11	10	Niko Kari	MP Motorsport	1'50.375	1.124
12	15	Roberto Merhi	Campos Racing	1'50.513	1.262
13	21	Antonio Fuoco	Charouz Racing System	1'50.522	1.271
14	11	Dan Ticktum	Arden International	1'50.580	1.329
15	3	Sean Gelael	Prema Powerteam	1'50.812	1.561
16	17	Alessio Lorandi	Trident	1'50.855	1.604
17	14	Luca Ghiotto	Campos Racing	1'50.892	1.641
18	9	Dorian Boccolacci	MP Motorsport	1'51.037	1.786
19	12	Nirei Fukuzumi	Arden International	1'51.048	1.797
20	16	Arjun Maini	Trident	1'51.597	2.346