F3: Bortoleto took pole, Bedrin crashed the car

Championship leader Gabriel Bortoleto has won qualifying for the second round of the Formula 3 season in Melbourne. Together with him from the front row in Sunday’s race, Grégoire Saucy will start.

At the start of qualifying for Formula 3, the clouds began to gather over Albert Park, so that the racers, wasting no time, headed for the first attempt. It took two laps to warm up the tyres, then quick attempts began, but red flags appeared on the track almost immediately.

José-Maria Martí, who was first on the fast lap, lost control of the car in turn ten, crashing into the gravel and crashing de Campos. Qualifying ended there for the winner of Saturday’s race in Bahrain. The Spanish racer left the cockpit under its own power, after which the marshals started to evacuate the broken equipment and repair the barrier.

The break lasted ten minutes, after which the riders returned to the track for the remaining 24 minutes of the session. Tom Barnard was the first to show the estimated time, but Jenzer’s pilot was immediately pushed back from the top line of protocol.

According to the results of the first set of fast laps, Franco Colapinto set the best time, ahead of Zach O’Sullivan by just 0.012 seconds and Bortoleto by 0.032 seconds. There were some mistakes and trips off the track, but the equipment remained intact.

After changing tires, the riders returned to the decisive set of laps eleven minutes before the end of the session. Several riders, including Nikita Bedrin, Grégoire Sosi, Paul Aron, Gabriele Mini, Luke Browning, Christian Mansell and Sebastian Montoya managed to improve their results, after which qualifying was suspended for the second time due to red flags.

This time Kaylen Frederick crashed the car coming out of the last corner. The ART driver was not injured, but mechanics will have to work to restore the car for Saturday’s race.

After a break, the pilots returned to the track for the last four and a half minutes of the session. Gabriele Mini improved on Colapinto’s result, but Grégoire Sosi turned out to be even faster. However, pole went to Bortoleto, who set the fastest lap in 1:33.025 seconds.

After the session ended, red flags appeared on the track for the third time. The reason was Nikita Bedrin, who crashed the car on the exit of the last corner. According to the qualifying results, Jenzer set the twentieth fastest time.

On Saturday, according to the reverse grid rule, the first twelve places start in reverse order. Sebastian Montoya will start tomorrow’s race from pole position. Oliver Goethe starts with him from the front row.