Alex Dunne remained on top to take FIA F2 feature race pole in Spa-Francorchamps, as Brad Benavides has his first in F3.
F2:
Alexander Dunne picked up where he left off in Free Practice, where he was fastest, to take the Aramco Pole Position Award at this afternoon’s Spa Francorchamps Qualifying. The Rodin Motorsport driver was in supreme form, as each lap he completed put him in P1, and with a final 1:57.151, he took P1 by over four-tenths to ART Grand Prix driver Ritomo Miyata in second and Invicta Racing’s Roman Stanek in third.
After the early installation laps, the first set of push laps came in and Luke Browning, one of the first to cross the line, went to the top on a 1:58.537 for Hitech TGR. The fastest time changed hands multiple times before Dunne went quickest on a 1:58.340, eclipsing title rival Leonardo Fornaroli by just 0.003s.
The entire field then pushed on for a second lap on their Soft tyres and there were several personal best sectors being set. Fornaroli improved to a 1:58.284 to go to P1, but only for a brief moment as Dunne set three purple sectors to retake the places on a 1:57.863, eclipsing the Invicta driver by 0.421s.
After pitting for another set of tyres, the drivers returned to the track with just under 10 minutes left in the session. There were several improvements throughout the field, but no one could match Dunne, who completed a 1:57.151 to beat his closest challenger in Miyata, by 0.419s.
A number of drivers outside of the top 10 positions, including Championship leader Richard Verschoor in 11th, looked to push on for a second attempt but they could not improve. This left Dunne on top for a second pole of the season, with Miyata second – his best Qualifying result in F2 – and Stanek in third ahead of the second ART car of Victor Martins.
Campos Racing teammates Arvid Lindblad and Josep María Martí were fifth and sixth, while Fornaroli ended up seventh, with Gabriele Minì eighth for PREMA Racing. Amaury Cordeel was ninth for Rodin, as MP Motorsport’s Oliver Goethe rounded out the top 10. That means Goethe is set to line up on reverse grid pole for Saturday’s Spa-Francorchamps Sprint Race.
Result: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1948738250048160011
F3:
AIX Racing’s Brad Benavides earned his and the team’s maiden FIA Formula 3 Aramco Pole Position Award late on in a thrilling Qualifying session. The American found time on his final attempt to record a 2:04.253 and beat Championship leader and TRIDENT driver Rafael Câmara to the top spot, with Rodin Motorsport’s Callum Voisin in third.
With the first runs in the books, Câmara hit the front with a 2:05.557 to set the pace ahead of Ugo Ugochukwu by 0.234s. Practice pace-setter Mari Boya had been in the top five but lost his opening effort to exceeding track limits after running over the white line at Pouhon.
Drivers remained on circuit for another attempt on their first set of tyres and there were improvements in the top 10. Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak closed the gap to Câmara in second, with Alessandro Giusti third on his next attempt for MP Motorsport.
Everyone returned to the pit lane with half the session remaining for a fresh set of the Pirelli Medium tyres. One of the drivers to go early on the second run was Théophile Nael, who went fastest on a 2:05.508. Van Amersfoort Racing teammate Santiago Ramos improved to third, 0.172s down on the Frenchman’s laptime.
With the rest of the grid back out for their next set of laps, Boya led the train and put in a personal best, but track evolution was huge, leading to a massive improvement in times. Benavides delivered a 2:04.253 for the provisional top spot with three minutes to go. Câmara also made an improvement but could not better the time of the American driver, settling 0.106s behind in second.
A squabble for track position ended when Ugochukwu moved to the head of the queue for the final attempts with less than 30 seconds to go and with almost the entire grid looking to start their final lap as late as possible.
However, nobody could find an improvement, leaving Benavides with pole for the Feature Race on Sunday, his and AIX’s first in the Championship. Câmara had briefly lost his lap for exceeding track limits, but it was reinstated to leave him in second at the chequered flag ahead of Voisin in third.
Rodin teammate Roman Bilinski was fourth ahead of Martinius Stenshorne in fifth. Ugochukwu wound up sixth ahead of Tsolov and Inthraphuvasak in seventh and eighth for Campos Racing. Charlie Wurz and Bruno del Pino completed the top 10, followed by Noah Stromsted in 11th and Freddie Slater in 12th, with the Hitech TGR driver set to start the Sprint Race from reverse grid pole.
Result: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1948801324268879964
[The story is as per press release]