Dennis Hauger secured a close feature FIA F2 race pole from Joshua Duerksen in Austria, as Luke Browning has so in F3.
F2:
MP Motorsport’s Dennis Hauger sealed his second Pole Position of the season after close battle with AIX Racing’s Joshua Duerksen in a dramatic Spielberg Qualifying. The Norwegian driver completed a lap of 1:15.487 to lead Duerksen by just 0.008s, as Invicta Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto rounded out the top three, a tenth away from the Norwegian’s Pole time.
It was Campos Racing’s Isack Hadjar that led the way in the early stages though, an opening time of 1:15.828 put him over two-tenths clear of Hitech Pulse-Eight’s Paul Aron in second. While most went for cool down laps, others continued to push but no one could trouble the top two, with Hauger going closest in his MP car in third place.
Returning to the pitlane, Hadjar had smoke coming from the rear of his car, with the issue ruling him out for the remainder of the session. The rest of the field followed him into the pitlane to bolt on a second set of the Pirelli Supersoft tyres in preparation for their final runs.
With five minutes left, the final few laps started and after leading the rest of the field around the track, Hauger went to the top of the timesheets with a 1:15.487, leading Duerksen by 0.111s as he moved himself up to second. The Paraguayan improved further on his next flying lap to go within 0.008s of top spot, but in the end Hauger held on to Pole Position, with Bortoleto in third.
Franco Colapinto completed a strong day for MP as he qualified fourth ahead of Aron, who survived a spin on his final flying effort to finish fifth. Taylor Barnard wound up sixth for AIX ahead of the Campos pair of Hadjar and Josep María Martí. Oliver Bearman was ninth for PREMA Racing ahead of Kush Maini, with the Invicta Racing driver set to start from reverse grid pole in the Sprint Race for the second weekend in a row.
Results: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1806681169397797367
F3:
Luke Browning earned his first Pole Position in FIA Formula 3, opting to run without a tow on the final runs to take the top spot around the Red Bull Ring. The Hitech Pulse-Eight driver was at the head of the train going into the final few laps, and was able to record a 1:20.222 without a slipstream to lead PREMA Racing’s Arvid Lindblad and MP Motorsport driver Tim Tramnitz in the top three.
In the opening exchanges, Noel León set the pace before being deposed by Nikola Tsolov, then Oliver Goethe and finally Gabriele Minì, with the PREMA driver’s 1:21.013 the time to beat. The Van Amersfoort Racing driver repositioned himself in P1 with his next effort, just over a tenth quicker than Minì, before the Alpine Academy driver responded with a 1:20.869 to go quickest once more by just 0.005s.
León responded again after a cool down lap, logging a 1:20.804 to retake the top spot by just over half a tenth. At the halfway point, he led Minì ahead of Trident’s Sami Meguetounif in third as well as Tsolov and Alex Dunne of MP Motorsport in P5.
A return to the pits and switch to a fresh set of Soft compound tyres and the field was back out onto circuit for the final eight minutes of the session. After trying unsuccessfully to not lead the field across the line to gain a tow, Browning led the line for the final flying laps without a slipstream and set a 1:20.222 for Provisional Pole.
Lindblad got closest to him, moving into second just 0.084s off that effort, while Tramnitz was another late improver for MP to wind up third-quickest at the chequered flag. Minì dropped to fourth in the end just in front of teammate Dino Beganovic in fifth position. Oliver Goethe was sixth for Campos Racing ahead of ART Grand Prix’s Laurens van Hoepen, Sebastián Montoya, Dunne, Tsolov and Christian Mansell.
Browning’s Hitech teammate Stenshorne rounded out the top 12 positions, with the Norwegian set to start from reverse grid pole in the Sprint Race. Having ended the session in eighth, Championship leader Fornaroli lost his laptime for exceeding track limits, with the Trident driver set to start both races from P24 on the grid.
Results: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1806666873980731845
UPDATE: Following the conclusion of FIA Formula 3 Qualifying in Spielberg, Hitech Pulse-Eight driver Luke Browning has been handed a grid penalty. During the session, Car #14 was on a slowdown lap whilst Dino Beganovic in the #1 PREMA Racing car was approaching Turn 9 on a fast lap, encountering the Hitech in the penultimate corner.
After a post-race investigation by the Race Stewards, hearing from both drivers and examining all available video evidence, they determined that Car #14 had impeded Beganovic on his flying lap. As a result, they elected to apply a three-place grid penalty to Browning. The Briton will serve the penalty in the next race in which he competes, currently set to be the Spielberg Sprint Race.
[Note: The story is as per press release]
