Team Abu Dhabi’s Rashed Al Qemzi faces a big test in tomorrow’s Grand Prix of Lithuania as he battles to protect his lead in the 2024 UIM F2 World Championship.
The four-time F2 champion, whose victory in Klaipėda last season was his third in the Baltic country, will start from seventh place in the third round of the series after suffering a setback in qualifying today as Britain’s Matthew Palfreyman claimed pole position.
The Emirati driver looked to be moving through to the six-boat shoot out before he was eliminated by a dramatic final lap from Lithuania’s Edgaras Riabko, who is a single point behind him in the championship standings.
There was disappointment also for his Abu Dhabi team-mate, Mansoor Al Mansoori, who failed to progress to the second phase of qualifying and will start tomorrow’s Grand Prix towards the back of the field.
Fresh from a victory in Norway which gave him the championship lead two weeks ago, Al Qemzi is chasing a fourth career win in Lithuania and a second in succession, and he arrived in Klaipėda full of confidence.
He still feels this could be the most fiercely competitive F2 championship on record, and there was more evidence of this in the morning free practice session when just 0.219 seconds separated the top three of Finland’s Jarno Vilmunen, Riabko and Al Qemzi.
It was a similar story in the opening qualifying session, with Sweden’s Mathilda Wiberg setting the fastest lap ahead of Vilmunen and Portugal’s Duarte Benavente, with Al Qemzi in sixth spot.
After producing a superb performance in Norway to finish second behind Al Qemzi, Al Mansoori was unable to reproduce that form and dropped out.
With only seconds remaining in Q2, Al Qemzi looked to be progressing before Riabko produced a fine last lap to edge him out of the top six, as Monaco’s Giacomo Sacchi went quickest.
More drama was to follow in the shoot-out as first round winner Palfreyma, lying third in the championship, saved his best to last to snatch his first F2 pole position from Vilmunen at the death.
