ROMAN STANEK TAKES POLE IN YAS MARINA AS PENALTIES SHAKE UP THE GRID
Roman Stanek had a great Qualifying session and took his second Aramco Pole Position Award of the season. He beat DAMS Lucas Oil driver Jak Crawford and his Invicta Racing teammate Leonardo Fornaroli at Yas Marina.
Stanek set a time of 1:36.836, putting him on pole position. Crawford was very close behind, only 0.087s slower. Fornaroli finished third, giving Invicta Racing a strong position as they fight for the Teams’ Championship.
Early in the session, Sebastián Montoya was fastest with a 1:37.972 for PREMA Racing, but Crawford soon went quicker, improving by 0.339s. Last year’s Feature Race winner Joshua Duerksen was also fast, getting within 0.091s of Crawford.
Montoya took back the top spot with a 1:37.604, but right before that, Duerksen went to P1 with a 1:37.464. After the first runs, the Paraguayan driver was leading by 0.135s, with Fornaroli second and Montoya third.
In the final laps, Oliver Goethe went fastest with a 1:37.086, and Dino Beganovic matched his time. But both were soon beaten again by Montoya and then Crawford. Goethe later lost his lap for track limits and dropped to P16.
Then Stanek crossed the line with his 1:36.836, taking the top spot. Crawford moved into second, 0.087s behind, and Beganovic went into third. More drivers improved at the end, and Fornaroli climbed to third, but nobody could beat Stanek.
Beganovic finished fourth, Montoya fifth. Goethe recovered after his deleted lap and ended up sixth, with Victor Martins in seventh. Duerksen finished eighth, ahead of Campos Racing drivers Nikola Tsolov and Arvid Lindblad, who will start on the front row for the Sprint Race thanks to the reverse-grid rules.
The Sprint Race will start at 16:15 local time on Saturday, as drivers try to end the 2025 season on a high note.
Penalties after Qualifying
After the session, Nikola Tsolov and Kush Maini received penalties.
Tsolov got a three-place grid penalty for blocking Hitech driver Luke Browning at Turn 9. The Stewards decided that Tsolov could have avoided the incident, so they penalised him for both the Sprint and Feature races.
Maini was investigated because his second set of rear tyres had been fitted on the wrong sides of the car. Because of this, all lap times he set on that tyre set were deleted. He stays P20 in the final results.
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