#fiaf3

SARGEANT STEALS SILVERSTONE POLE

Logan Sargeant stole pole position from Liam Lawson and Oscar Piastri in a crowded F3 qualifying session at Silverstone.

Theo Pourchaire, who was quickest in practice, led the field out of the pit lane and was the first car to set the benchmark pace, initially topping the session only to be beaten by David Beckmann, Lawson and Piastri. The HWA cars also lapped competitively only to have their lap times deleted for exceeding track limits.

The field stayed nice and close behind until Sargeant beat the time set by Piastri, on the final run before changing tyres midway through the session. Only a second covered the American in P1 and Dennis Hauger down in P13.

With 3 minutes to go Piastri then went fastest again, the entire field improving meaning the top nineteen cars were covered by just 1.05 seconds, setting up a nail-biting set of final runs.

Liam Lawson then took pole with a brilliant lap in his Hitech, pushing the PREMAs throughout the session. With Piastri unable to improve on his time behind it all came down to whether Sargeant could deliver.

He did so by just 0.058 seconds to take pole ahead of tomorrow’s feature race, with the front five cars lining up as: Prema-Hitech-Prema-Hitech-Prema, after a stellar effort from Max Fewtrell saw him pop up into P4, hopefully kick-starting what has been a disappointing campaign so far for the Brit.

Sebastian Fernandez finished best of the rest in P6, Jake Hughes, Clement Novalak, Olli Caldwell and Ben Barnicoat line up for their home race in P7, P10 P17 & P20 respectively. Barnicoat will be especially pleased with that, stepping in to replace Enaam Ahmed at just 48 hours notice.

Calan Williams will also be pleased with P15 in the Jenzer has he continues to develop and improve so far this season, whilst Beckmann, Pourchaire and Richard Verschoor all had lacklustre sessions and leave themselves with a lot to do tomorrow, starting P11, P12 and P14 respectively. Jack Doohan was also unlucky on his final run, with all of sector three littered with slow cars, leaving him down in P21 despite decent pace early on in the session.

QUALIFYING RESULT:

SARGEANT LAWSON PIASTRI FEWTRELL VESTI FERNANDEZ HUGHES ZENDELI SMOLYAR NOVALAK

FIA F3 - QUALIFYING REPORT - FERNANDEZ FIGHTS HIS WAY TO POLE

Sebastian Fernandez stormed back to F3 action today stealing his first pole at the Red Bull Ring to take the Championship lead.

Clement Novalak, one of 19 rookies in the field, created drama early on in the session by taking a trip through the gravel to ruin his lap as Fernandez hit the front early on in the session. Whilst Britain’s Jake Hughes found himself as low down as 23rd as track conditions continually improved.

American Logan Sargeant then sat on provisional pole, as his PREMA team mate Frederik Vesti span at the final corner, ruining his, and several other drivers laps. PREMA leading the way as all 30 cars headed to the pit lane to change tyres.

A mad dash for the line saw Germany’s Lirim Zendeli sit on provisional pole as the chequered flag came out, only to be knocked off in the dying seconds by Sebastian Fernandez, with the first 22 cars covered by just a second, the Spaniard will start tomorrow’s hotly contested F3 race from pole position.

GRID ORDER:

LAWSON WINS SPRINT RACE

An action packed F3 sprint race saw Red Bull junior Liam Lawson take his first victory ahead of Richard Verschoor, Clement Novalak and David Beckmann.

It was Beckmann who made a storming start, jumping from P4 up to P2, as Alex Smolyar fell down the order to P5 from the front row of the grid.

Lap 2 saw a four way fight for the points positions between yesterday’s podium finishers and Bent Viscaal. The PREMA of Logan Sargeant came off worse, having battled with team mate Piastri, he was then tapped in the rear by Viscaal, resulting in the American limping back to the pits with a puncture.

A change for the lead took place on lap 4 with David Beckmann diving past Clement Novalak, late on the brakes at turn 4, Novalak tried to take the lead back a lap later at turn 3, but went wide, allowing Lawson to pass with a run on him into turn 4.

Lawson in turn then took the lead from Beckmann on lap 7 with a brilliant move at turn 4, whilst a lap later Cameron Das became the first retirement of the morning following contact and a run through the gravel at the same corner.

It was role reversal on lap 10 with Novalak diving past on full send to take P2 from Beckmann, who was starting to lose pace, a lap later Richard Verschoor tried his luck but was forced on to the gravel on the exit of turn 4.

Alex Peroni suddenly slowed and stopped on track, catching out the unlucky Theo Pourchaire behind him, costing the Frenchman his front wing and bringing out the Virtual Safety Car.

Racing restarted on lap 12, and Verschoor moved past Beckmann to take P3, and the Dutchman took P2 from Novalak on Lap 16. The Safety Car came out on Lap 19 due to Roman Stanek hitting a polystyrene board and spreading the debris all over the track.

Pourchaire had a close call with a marshal behind the Safety Car, not getting the memo to head through the pit lane. Racing restarted again on Lap 23, Lawson getting the perfect getaway to fend off Verschoor to the line, whilst Fittipaldi and Fewtrell got past Viscaal for the final points positions.

Jake Hughes and Sebastian Fernandez both shone despite finishing outside the points, Hughes gaining 16 places, and Fernandez 17 places. 

RACE RESULT:

LAWSON VERSCHOOR NOVALAK BECKMANN ZENDELI VESTI SMOLYAR PIASTRI FITTIPALDI FEWTRELL

VISCAAL HUGHES FERNANDEZ DUNNER SCHUMACHER FLOERSCH WILLIAMS NANNINI POURCHAIRE CALDWELL DELEDDA MALVESTITI HAUGER STANEK AHMED FRAGA SARGEANT + 1 LAP