Bortolotti claims pole position ahead of Pineiro in Barcelona

Bortolotti

Mirko Bortolotti has taken his second pole position at Barcelona this weekend, as he bids to become the FIA Formula Two driver with the most ever wins. Local racer Ramon Pineiro will start today's race alongside him on the front row, the Spaniard targeting second place in the championship, but he will need to win to gain this position.

Meanwhile Miki Monras secured third during the closely fought dry qualifying session at the 4.655km Circuit de Catalunya – venue for the final race of the season at 14:00 (local time) today.

As the session got underway it was 19-year-old Monras setting the pace lapping in the 1min 39s while Bortolotti and Pineiro remained in the pits.

Dane Mikkel Mac, who has enjoyed a promising first season in F2, Mihai Marinescu and Thiemo Storz all looked quick during the opening exchanges as did Frenchman Benjamin Lariche.

21-year-old Bortolotti then began to show the pace we've come to expect from the F2 champion topping the timesheets first with a 1min 38 before using his overboost facility, increasing power output to 500bhp, to better that with a time of 1:37.325s.

Pineiro soon joined him in P2 with Brit Alex Brundle holding onto third before Marinescu and then finally Monras secured the P3 for the 22-lap race.

Marinescu held onto fourth spot with Dutchman Kelvin Snoeks in fifth and Brundle in sixth. Tobias Hegewald secured seventh spot just ahead of 18-year-old Mac with Zanella, still battling with Pineiro for second place in the championship, in ninth and Lariche completing the top 10.

Speaking afterwards Bortolotti said: “I had to test a small thing for qualifying so I did a quick out and in lap. Then we had one set of tires, so back to normal qualifying, so I’m very happy with this pole position here. As I said yesterday, on this track it’s very important to have pole position, so now I’m looking forward to the race, it’s going to be my last race in Formula Two, so of course it’s going to be quite an emotional one. Obviously Ramon needs to win but I want to win, so let’s see what happens!"

Be sure to watch round 16 live on Motors TV and also via live streaming on the official F2 website.

Barcelona, qualifying race 2 Top-10 Lineup:

1. Mirko Bortolotti, 1:37.325s
2. Ramon Pineiro, +0.225s
3. Miki Monras, +0.230s
4. Mihai Marinescu, +-.267s
5. Kelvin Snoeks, +1.000s
6. Alex Brundle, +1.107s
7. Tobias Hegewald, +1.209s
8. Mikkel Mac, +1.213s
9. Christopher Zanella, +1.336s
10. Benjamin Lariche, +1.342s