F2 Australia: Qualifying Results and Report as Colton Herta Makes Debut

Dino Beganovic secured the first Formula 2 pole position of the season as Colton Herta made his championship debut in qualifying at Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia.

DAMS driver Beganovic aced his final lap of a red flag-laden session to set a best time of 1:28.695s, just over two-tenths up on Martinius Stenshorne.

His Rodin teammate Alex Dunne was third after a frantic end to the half-hour session, where 20 cars rushed to set a lap within a three-minute window.

Herta, meanwhile, recovered from a crash in his first practice outing to finish marginally slower than his Hitech GP teammate and qualify 14th for both the sprint and feature races - a strong showing given the alterations to his driving style needed when switching from IndyCar to F2.

Colton Herta, Hitech, F2, Australian GP 2026 — Hitech GP

Beganovic stuns as Mini crashes

As is usual in F2 qualifying, which is held over a straight 30 minutes rather than the Formula 1-style segmented eliminations, laptimes were traded early on.

But the exchanges were brought to a halt with red flags 10 minutes into the session, triggered by a crash for Mari Boya.

The Prema driver slid wide at Turn 12, skipped across the gravel and hit the barriers with some force to leave heavy damage to the left-hand side of his car.

🔴 RED FLAG 🔴

Mari Boya hits the wall on the exit of Turn 12.#F2 #AusGP pic.twitter.com/r0cUlOwLTS
— Formula 2 (@Formula2) March 6, 2026

A second red flag period came just as drivers emerged for a final tilt at a flying lap as Alpine academy driver Gabriele Mini, who had been quickest in practice earlier in the day, ground to a halt on the exit of Turn 10 in his MP Motorsport machine.

That neutralization came with nine minutes to go, but with F1 second practice approaching, the clock continued to tick down while Mini's car was retrieved.

Drivers returned to the track en masse with three minutes remaining as the green light illuminated at the pit exit, with space a premium for the 20 cars left fighting for pole.

After a frantic dash, it was Swedish driver Beganovic who ended up on pole for Sunday's feature race, beating Rodin pair Stenshorne and Dunne.

Noel Leon was fourth quickest ahead of Campos teammate Nikola Tsolov, the Red Bull junior having been fastest before the second red flag.

Reigning F3 champion Rafael Camara was sixth for Invicta, with ART's Kush Maini seventh and Oliver Goethe eighth.

Mercedes development driver Joshua Durksen was ninth, with Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak 10th - securing pole for Saturday's reverse grid sprint race.

Laurens Van Hoepen was 11th ahead of Roman Bilinki and Ritomo Miyata and Herta, who to his credit was competitive with his experienced teammate.

Sebastian Montoya endured a miserable final flying lap to qualify only 15th ahead of Rafael Villagomez and John Bennett.

Emerson Fittipaldi, Nico Varrone, Cian Shields, Mini and Boya round out the grid.

F2 Australia - Qualifying Results

Position	Driver / Team
1.	Dino Beganovic / DAMS
2.	Martinius Stenshorne / Rodin
3.	Alex Dunne / Rodin
4.	Noel Leon / Campos
5.	Nikola Tsolov / Campos
6.	Rafael Camara / Invicta
7.	Kush Maini / ART
8.	Oliver Goethe / MP Motorsport
9.	Joshua Durksen / Invicta
10.	Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak / ART
11.	Laurens Van Hoepen / Trident
12.	Roman Bilinski / DAMS
13.	Ritomo Miyata / Hitech
14.	Colton Herta / Hitech
15.	Sebastian Montoya / Prema
16.	Rafael Villagomez / VAR
17.	John Bennett / Trident
18.	Emerson Fittipaldi / AIX
19.	Nico Varrone / VAR
20.	Cian Shields / AIX
21.	Gabriele Mini / MP Motorsport
22.	Mari Boya / Prema