Zhou takes first F2 pole position of 2021 but is under investigation

UNI-Virtuosi's Guanyu Zhou is set to start Sunday’s feature race from pole position after beating Christian Lundgaard to top spot by just 0.003s.

Although, it is in doubt as the Chinese driver is under investigation for taking the chequered flag twice at the end of the session.

Zhou stormed to the top of the timesheets in the dying minutes, toppling Lundgaard’s initial impressive benchmark of a 1m42.815s.

If Zhou escapes a penalty, he will line up tenth for Saturday’s first sprint race, but will start from pole position for the feature race on Sunday.

For 2021, F2 has altered its format with three races taking place each weekend, rather than just two.

Friday’s qualifying results dictates the grid for Sunday’s main feature race.

The qualifying result from Friday also decides the grid for Saturday’s first sprint race, although the top ten is reversed.

The battle for pole was frantic in the dying minutes as with just over five minutes of the session to go, Robert Shwartzman came to a halt on the start-finish straight resulting in a brief red flag period.

Once the Russian’s Prema was cleared, the track action got back underway with a series of storming lap times.

Lundgaard surged to the top, but was soon beaten by Zhou by just 0.003s.

The second UNI-Virtuosi of Felipe Drugovich led the early stages of qualifying, but dropped to third come the close of the session.

Dan Ticktum ended qualifying fourth on his debut for Carlin, 0.490s shy of pole.

Red Bull junior Juri Vips was the lead Hitech Grand Prix car in fifth ahead of Richard Veschoor - the final driver to have been confirmed in F2 ahead of the season

Jehan Daruvala made it two Carlins in the top seven, ahead of Oscar Piastri, Liam Lawson and David Beckmann.

Shwartzman eventually dropped to 12th following his premature end to the session.

Trident’s Bent Viscaal is under investigation for a pit lane incident and will be investigated after qualifying.

Viscaal stalled his car on his way down the pit lane, forcing his Trident mechanics to start it up again outside the team’s designated pit box, which is against the regulations.

Click here to find the full Formula 2 qualifying results from Bahrain.