Paul Aron took a close feature F2 race pole by 0.002s over Jak Crawford in Barcelona, as Christian Mansell does so in F3.
F2:
Paul Aron picked up from where he left off in Practice, setting the fastest time in Qualifying for his maiden Formula 2 Pole Position in an incredibly close session. DAMS Lucas Oil’s Jak Crawford ended up just 0.002s back in second, with Franco Colapinto third for MP Motorsport, 0.006s behind Aron.
After ending up fastest in Practice, Aron set the first time to beat on a 1:25.385. MP teammates Dennis Hauger and Colapinto filed through in second and third places respectively. The Red Flag was then thrown after AIX Racing’s Taylor Barnard went off at Turn 9 and into the barriers. He was out of the car and ok, but his car needed recovering.
Running resumed with 23:22 left on the clock but there were no threats to Aron’s provisional Pole time until Isack Hadjar ventured out for his first flying lap. The Frenchman put his Campos Racing car at the top of the times, setting a 1:25.205. PREMA Racing’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli was also able to move up to second place, just 0.141s down on Hadjar’s effort.
Zane Maloney put himself into the top five for Rodin Motorsport, moving ahead of the MP teammates to go fourth fastest behind Aron. After a brief spell of quiet in the pitlane, everyone was fitted with fresh Soft tyres and took to the track once again with under 10 minutes to go.
Aron was able to find further improvements to retake the top spot with a 1:24.766 before Ritomo Miyata put himself up to P2 for Rodin, 0.182s behind. Colapinto fought a snap of oversteer out of the final corner to go within 0.006s of Pole, ending up just short before Jak Crawford went closer still, 0.002s down on Aron’s time.
Gabriel Bortoleto made it four drivers within a tenth of a second, going fourth ahead of Antonelli, who bumped Miyata out of the top five. Joshua Duerksen made a late improvement to go seventh ahead of Juan Manuel Correa in the DAMS Lucas Oil car, with ART Grand Prix’s Victor Martins ninth and Kush Maini in P10.
Results: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1804160655475224712
F3:
Christian Mansell is set to start Formula 3’s 100th race from Pole Position after he beat PREMA Racing’s Arvid Lindblad to top spot in a dramatic Barcelona Qualifying. The ART Grand Prix driver set a 1:28.463 on his final attempt in the session to take his maiden Pole in the category, with Lindblad ending up second just 0.036s off the pace, while Mansell’s teammate Nikola Tsolov was third.
After the first set of laps, it was the third ART driver Laurens van Hoepen who went fastest. The Dutchman’s time of 1:29.187 saw him beat Trident’s Leonardo Fornaroli to top spot by less than a tenth. The drivers then returned to the pitlane and strapped on a second set of the Pirelli Hard tyres in preparation for the next set of push laps.
As they crossed the line to complete the second flying efforts it was Luke Browning that went fastest with a 1:28.888. Home favourite Mari Boya went closest to beating his time, with the Campos Racing driver just 0.006s off top spot. The drivers pitted one last time for another set of tyres with the top 17 drivers all within half a second of Browning’s pace-setting time.
On the final runs, the fastest effort changed hands multiple times before Mansell eclipsed Lindblad’s time by just 0.036s, with his lap of 1:28.463 giving him his first Formula 3 Pole Position. ART teammate Tsolov took P3 ahead of Browning with Oliver Goethe the lead Campos in P5.
Fornaroli wound up P6 ahead of Hitech Pulse-Eight’s Martinius Stenshorne, with van Hoepen in eighth. MP Motorsport’s Alex Dunne ended up in P9 ahead of the Campos pair of Sebastián Montoya and Mari Boya, with Sami Meguetounif in P12.
Results: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1804144847835496952
[Note: The story is as per press release]