Paul Aron took an important feature FIA F2 race pole in Belgium, as Callum Voisin headed the F3 pack.
F2:
It was Paul Aron that claimed an important Pole Position for Hitech Pulse-Eight around Spa-Francorchamps, his 1:56.959 putting him on top ahead of his title rivals. Gabriel Bortoleto was closest to the Estonian, 0.168s back in P2 while Championship leader Isack Hadjar wound up third on the grid, 0.2s down on his nearest rival.
Before anyone could record a timed lap, there was a Red Flag as the ART Grand Prix car belonging to Victor Martins slowed to a halt at the start of sector three. The session resumed with 24 minutes on the clock, and when the first times filtered through, Hadjar set the pace with a 1:57.803, just 0.102s ahead of title rival Aron in P2.
Bortoleto filtered through in P3, with Andrea Kimi Antonelli fourth another tenth back from the Brazilian. Kush Maini and Franco Colapinto were one of the few that opted to put a second lap in on their first set of Soft tyres and the pair improved to fifth and sixth respectively.
Drivers returned to the track with 10 minutes left of the session on a fresh set of tyres for their next attempts and there were improvements everywhere. Aron improved his time to take provisional pole with three minutes to go on a 1:56.959. Hadjar couldn’t beat that and went second until Bortoleto went quicker still, 0.168s down on the Estonian.
Jak Crawford wound up fourth for DAMS Lucas Oil ahead of Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Zane Maloney. Colapinto was seventh with Richard Verschoor eighth, Dennis Hauger in P9, while a late effort from Zak O’Sullivan put the Briton 10th and on reverse grid pole for the Sprint Race.
Result: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1816845744332034068
F3:
Rodin Motorsport’s Callum Voisin took his first ever Formula 3 Pole Position after coming out on top in a frenetic Spa-Francorchamps Qualifying session. The British driver completed a lap of 2:04.321 to beat MP Motorsport’s Alexander Dunne to pole by 0.123s, with Trident’s Leonardo Fornaroli taking third place.
But after the first set of laps, it was the ART Grand Prix cars that set the pace, with Laurens van Hoepen completing the early benchmark time of 2:05:507 to lead Christian Mansell by just 0.011s. Hitech Pulse-Eight chose a different strategy by sending their drivers out early on the second set of tyres, giving them an empty track. However, it did not work for Luke Browning as he ran wide at Pouhon after losing the rear, leaving him down in P18.
His teammate Martinius Stenshorne was one of several to lose their first laps for exceeding track limits but on the latest attempt he went to P11, while Cian Shields jumped to P14. The Hitech trio ducked into the pit lane while the rest of the field emerged on to the track with 10 minutes to go.
Van Amersfoort Racing’s Noel León was another to lose their laps for exceeding track limits but after putting on a new set of tyres he went fastest with a 2:04.545, the Mexican driver nearly a second clear of the rest of the field. But then came the rest with first Sebastián Montoya, then Fornaroli and later Dunne going fastest, before Voisin went to the top with a 2:04.321.
However, as the drivers prepared for their final laps there was a huge queue heading into the final chicane, meaning that the likes of Fornaroli and León did not get to the line in time to set off another attempt. Some drivers did improve in the first sector but because they were so close to each other there were no improvements through the technical middle sector.
This meant that the order stayed as it was, with Voisin taking his maiden Formula 3 Pole Position ahead of Dunne, with Fornaroli staying in third. Montoya took P4 for Campos Racing ahead of León in fifth and Jenzer Motorsport’s Max Esterson in sixth.
Browning had earlier moved to P7 with Sami Meguetounif in P8 for Trident ahead of Tim Tramnitz in the MP Motorsport #7. Santiago Ramos was in 10th place ahead of the PREMA Racing pair Gabriele Minì and Dino Beganovic, with the Swede set to start from reverse grid pole in the Sprint Race.
Result: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1816830498162766313
[Note: The story is as per press release]
