Tsunoda holds off Zhou for maiden F2 pole in Austria

F2 Red Bull Ring - Qualifying Results

Yuki Tsunoda will start on pole position for the second round of the 2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship after resisting Guanyu Zhou in qualifying at the Red Bull Ring.

The Japanese racer, a member of the Red Bull junior driver programme, is starting only his second F2 event this weekend following his debut in Austria earlier in the week and showed impressive pace at the wheel of his Carlin to top a tense session.

His best time came fairly early on in the session, with the 1m 14.803s lap proving just enough to prevent Zhou from repeating his pole success a week ago at the same circuit.

Tsunoda’s pole boost comes after a fraught debut outing with Carlin at the Red Bull Ring just days earlier. The F3 graduate was penalised in both races for causing avoidable accidents, firstly with his team-mate Jehan Daruvala in the feature event and then Luca Ghiotto in the sprint race.

Zhou lines up alongside him in second place, though the Chinese racer – who was on course for victory in the feature race before technical issues thwarted him – will be frustrated to miss out on a shot at pole when Mick Schumacher baulked him on what could have been his fastest lap.

Last weekend’s feature race winner Callum Ilott is well positioned again in third place in the UNI-Virtuosi car, ahead of Ghiotto, who will hope to put his round one double DNF behind him with a more successful outing in the Hitech car.

Jack Aitken starts in fifth position ahead of 2019 F3 champion Robert Shwartzman, Daruvala in the second Carlin car, ART’s Christian Lundgaard, Schumacher and round one sprint race winner Felipe Drugovich.