F2 Britain: Sargeant beats Vesti at Silverstone for maiden series pole

The Williams junior led practice earlier in the day, and stormed to the top of the timesheets early in the session with a 1m38.946s as the first driver to dip below 1m39s.

Once he took provisional pole, he was unmatchable, despite close challenges from Frederik Vesti (ART) and Prema Racing’s Jehan Daruvala.

Sargeant improved midway through the session, shaving 0.5s off an already impressive lap time to seal his first pole position in the series.

It was Carlin’s second pole position of the day, with the Farnham-based team also taking pole in FIA Formula 3, courtesy of Zak O’Sullivan.

Vesti set an early benchmark with a 1m39.611s, 0.3s quicker than second placed Jack Doohan (Virtuosi Racing).

Ayumu Iwasa was quick to challenge for second, with a 1m39.655s, before championship leader Felipe Drugovich went third with a 1m39.676s.

Ayumu Iwasa, Dams (Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool)

Juri Vips was next to take the top spot, with a 1m39.371s, but his tenure was shortlived as Sargeant put in his first flying lap of the session.

Daruvala slotted into second while most of the field pitted, setting a 1m39.115s, but he was soon demoted as the rest of the field returned with fresh soft tyres.

Vesti was quick to bounce back, snatching second back with a 1m38.539s, while Drugovich took third with a 1m38.553s to continue his title fight.

He had looked set to improve on his time, but a spin at Turn 18 ruined a last attempt.

Rival Theo Pourchaire (ART) will line up fourth on Sunday, setting an almost identical time to the Brazilian, who leads the standings by 49 points.

Sargeant’s team-mate Liam Lawson will line up fifth for the feature race, with Iwasa in sixth and Doohan in seventh.

After failing to improve on his earlier time, Daruvala finished tenth to take pole for Saturday’s reverse-grid sprint race, with Enzo Fittipaldi of Charouz in second after struggling with the kerbs at Turn 3 early in the session.

Vips, who was dropped by Red Bull’s Junior Team this week after using a racial slur but will remain at Hitech, will line up third for Saturday’s race and eighth on Sunday.

F2 Britain: Full qualifying results

Cla	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	Logan Sargeant	Carlin	1'38.432
2	Frederik Vesti	ART Grand Prix	1'38.539	0.107
3	Felipe Drugovich	MP Motorsport	1'38.553	0.121
4	Theo Pourchaire	ART Grand Prix	1'38.553	0.121
5	Liam Lawson	Carlin	1'38.625	0.193
6	Ayumu Iwasa	DAMS	1'38.734	0.302
7	Jack Doohan	UNI-Virtuosi	1'38.901	0.469
8	Jüri Vips	HitechGP	1'39.013	0.581
9	Enzo Fittipaldi	Charouz Racing System	1'39.077	0.645
10	Jehan Daruvala	Prema Powerteam	1'39.115	0.683
11	Roy Nissany	DAMS	1'39.222	0.790
12	Marcus Armstrong	HitechGP	1'39.266	0.834
13	Dennis Hauger	Prema Powerteam	1'39.429	0.997
14	Jake Hughes	Van Amersfoort Racing	1'39.448	1.016
15	Richard Verschoor	Trident	1'39.492	1.060
16	Olli Caldwell	Campos Racing	1'39.580	1.148
17	Ralph Boschung	Campos Racing	1'39.597	1.165
18	Clement Novalak	MP Motorsport	1'39.660	1.228
19	Marino Sato	UNI-Virtuosi	1'39.677	1.245
20	Cem Bolukbasi	Charouz Racing System	1'39.691	1.259
21	Calan Williams	Trident	1'39.912	1.480
22	David Beckmann	Van Amersfoort Racing	1'40.291	1.859
View full results