F3: Fornaroli wins qualifying in Melbourne

Leonardo Fornaroli showed the best time during Formula 3 qualifying in Melbourne. Together with him, Gabriele Mini will start from the front row during Sunday’s race.

Before the start of the qualifying session it was announced that the results would not correspond to the placement of the riders at the start. Nikola Tsolov loses three positions due to a collision with Alex Dunne in practice. In addition, Tsolov received two penalty points.

As soon as the stopwatch started counting down the 30-minute session, the riders immediately rushed to the track. After two warm-up laps the riders started attacking with full force. Santiago Ramos failed his attempt when the Trident driver went into the gravel at Turn 3, but then returned to the track.

After the first fast lap, Leonardo Fornaroli led the protocol, with a lead of 0.4 seconds over Gabriele Mini. Dino Beganovic was in third place – his lead was 0.955 seconds.

In the second fast lap Mini improved his time, but he could not beat Fornaroli’s result. Luke Browning moved up to third place and Nikita Bedrin set the fourth fastest time. This was the end of the first attempt and the racers went to the pits for new tires.

The racers took off for the second set of fast laps when there were just over ten minutes to go before the end of qualifying. They let the tires warm up again for two laps before starting the decisive attempts.

Gabriele Mini improved and moved into first place, but just ahead of him, Sami Megetunif crashed his car exiting the final corner, leading to red flags. The driver of the Trident was not injured and left the car alone.

There were still four and a half minutes to go before the end of qualifying, and after a 14-minute break the session resumed. The racers immediately rushed to the track to have time for a fast lap.

Leonardo Fornaroli managed to return to first place, beating Mini’s result by 0.019 seconds. Dino Beganovic moved up to third place. Nikita Bedrin qualified fourth and championship leader Luke Browning set the fifth fastest time.

In the final seconds of the session, Joseph Louck hit the wall with his left rear tire as he exited the final corner. The Rodin rider broke his rear suspension, but was able to make it through the first corner, so the yellow flags did not stop the others from completing the attempt.

The starting grid for the sprint has been reversed: the drivers in the first twelve places will start tomorrow in reverse order. Marie Boya will start from pole on Saturday. Laurens van Hoepen will start the race with him from the front row.