Home boy Charles Leclerc claims Pole Position for the Monaco F2 race

Home boy Charles Leclerc claims Pole Position for the Monaco F2 race but is under investigation

In Qualifying for in the FIA Formula 2 Championship at Monaco, Ferrari Academy driver Charles Leclerc claimed Pole Position ahead of Alexander Albon and Oliver Rowland but could lose Pole after an investigation from the stewards.

With F2 qualifying in Monaco is split into two sessions (Group A and Group B) with each session consisting of 16-minutes each; Leclerc set the fastest time in Group 1 even though he brushed the barriers after exiting the tunnel on his way to a best lap of 1.19.309, which meant he set the quickest time in qualifying for the third time out of three events in 2017.

The fastest driver from group two ART Grand Prix’s Alexander Albon with a laptime of 1.19.321 late on in the second half of qualifying, but wound up just 0.012s slower than Leclerc.

So this means Albon will start second and the next fastest drivers from each segment will line up behind Leclerc and Albon in the order they finished their respective sessions. But the Thai driver could yet start on pole as it was announced during the first segment that Leclerc will be investigated for stalling in the pitlane and failing to wait for a minute before getting going again.

This then means that DAMS driver Oliver Rowland is third on the grid, alongside Russian Time racer and 2016 Monaco GP2 feature race winner Artem Markelov in fourth place.

ART Grand Prix driver Nobuharu Matsushita, who crashed at the very end of the first session when he clattered the kerbs going through the second part of the Swimming Pool and hit the barriers on the outside of the track qualified in fifth place

Norman Nato will start in sixth place after finishing third in the second group, and will line up ahead of MP Motorsport driver Jordan King in seventh place ahead of McLaren F1 junior Nyck de Vries who qualified in eighth place but will lose three places for the feature race after picking up a penalty for causing a collision with Prema’s Antonio Fuoco in the sprint race last time out at Barcelona.

Luca Ghiotto was fifth in the first session and qualifies in ninth place, with Nicolas Latifi – who lost what looked like a certain victory in the Spain sprint event when he ran wide after noticing his wing mirror had fallen off late in the race rounding out the top 10 finishers.

Driving for Pleasure will be covering the Monaco F2 weekend with our race report alongside the latest news.

Picture supplied by the FIA Formula 2 World Championship

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa