F3: Gabriele Mini wins Monaco qualifying

Hitech driver Gabriele Mini showed the best time in qualifying for the third round of the season in Monaco. Together with him, Dino Beganovic will start from the front row in Sunday’s race.

This year, Formula 3 has come to Monaco for the first time in recent history. The circle of the city track is too short (3337 meters) for all 30 riders to pass the attempts without interfering with each other, they were divided into two groups, each given 16 minutes. The first “Group A” consisted of riders with even numbers, the second “Group B” – with odd numbers.

The distribution of positions at the start of Sunday’s race has changed according to the qualifying format. The driver from the group whose time was fastest wins the pole position. The fastest rider from the second group will take second place at the start for Sunday’s race, after which starting positions will switch between the groups.

The top 12 riders form the reverse grid for Saturday’s race, with the sixth fastest rider of the second group starting from pole and the sixth fastest rider of the first group taking second place at the start. The remaining 10 starting places are allocated according to a similar principle.

In the first qualifying group Beganovich, Fornaroli, Goethe, Sosi, Colapinto, Edgar, Montoya, Browning, Villagomez, Gray, Cohen, Mansell, Bedrin, Garcia and Faria left for tries. Under a cloudless sky and a bright sun, the riders immediately took to the track as soon as the stopwatch started counting down.

Young pilots gradually gained speed. Oliver Goethe was the first to show a competitive time, but his result was immediately surpassed by Christian Mansell. The riders exchanged positions on the front row until Dino Beganovich completed the lap in 1:25.308 s.

After a series of fast laps, the riders went on a slow lap to cool the tires and then continued to attack. Luke Browning took the lead (1:24.650 s). Beganovich also improved his time, but lost just over two tenths of the Hitech rider.

Three minutes before the end of the session, yellow flags appeared on the track because of Oliver Goethe, who drove into the “pocket” in the first corner.

At the same time, Montoya set the fastest time, but Browning ran his lap even faster – 1:23.883 s. In a last-ditch effort, Dino Beganovich countered and retook first place, just 0.003 seconds ahead of Browning.

Over the course of the session, several riders cornered dangerously close to the barriers, and after the time expired on the decisive fast lap, Montoya broke the right-rear suspension. Sebastian, however, held on to third place. Nikita Bedrin, following the results of the session, set the seventh fastest time – 1:25.742 s.

After a short break, the participants of “Group B” – Aron, O’Sullivan, Bortoleto, Frederik, Tsolov, Boya, Mini, Collet, Smith, Yini, Marty, Barter, Barnard, Flörsch and Vishnitsky – left the track.

As in the first group, the riders gradually increased their pace. The first milestone was set by Paul Aron (1:26.150 s). Soon the Estonian rider’s result was successively surpassed by Chao Collet and Gabriele Mini – 1:24.946 s.

Paul Aron hit the barrier with his left hand in the final corner, but the impact was not strong and the Prema rider continued his effort.

Mini’s time was bettered by José-Maria Marti with just over six minutes remaining at the end of the session – 1:24.850s. The Campos rider didn’t lead for long – Aron and Mini took turns surpassing his result. As a result, according to the results of the first set of fast laps, Mini remained the leader – 1: 24.148 s.

After the tires cooled down, the riders transitioned to the final attempts. Mini improved his result by completing the lap in 1:23.278 seconds, faster than the best result of “Group A”. Chao Collet added and moved from 10th to 3rd. Championship leader Gabriel Bortoleto ended the session in fourth fastest.

After two qualifying sessions, Gabriele Mini took pole position in Sunday’s race. Gregoire Saucy will start from first place in Saturday’s sprint.

“Group A” results

“Group B” results