Prema’s Jehan Daruvala claimed first FIA Formula 3 (F3) pole for Spa-Francorchamps’ feature race from Trident’s Pedro Piquet.
The first run in F3 qualifying at Spa-Francorchamps had the two Trident drivers on top with Pedro Piquet ahead of Devlin Defrancesco as points leader Prema’s Robert Shwartzman was third.
It changed in the second and final run with Hitech GP’s Juri Vips taking pole initially but the Estonian was quickly beaten by Prema’s Jehan Daruvala, with a 2m05.125s lap but with more to come from others.
However, none were able to counter the Indian’s time as he took his first F3 pole of 2019 and earned four crucial points in the title fight. Vips lost further with Piquet (2m05.356s) slotting in second.
A surprise from Jenzer Motorsport and Honda junior Yuki Tsunoda (2m05.540s) put him in third with Shwartzman (2m05.605s) only fourth ahead of HWA Racelab’s Jake Hughes (2m05.614s).
Red Bull junior Vips (2m05.625s) dropped to sixth, with Defrancesco (2m05.640s) in seventh, Hitech GP’s Leonardo Pulcini (2m05.701s) eighth, Carlin’s Logan Sargeant (2m05.709s) ninth.
The Top 10 was rounded out by MP Motorsport’s Liam Lawson (2m06.060s) as Campos Racing’s Alexander Peroni was 11th from the lead ART Grand Prix car of Max Fewtrell in 12th.
The Top 15 then had MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor in 13th, ART’s Christian Lundgaard 14th and Hitech GP’s Ye Yifei 15th.
Position 16-30: Bent Viscaal, David Beckmann, Giorgio Carrara, Marcus Armstrong, Teppei Natori, Niko Kari, Keyvan Andres, Felipe Drugovich, Raoul Hyman, Sebastian Fernandez, Andreas Estner, Simo Laaksonen, Fabio Scherer, Lirim Zendeli, Alessio Deledda.
