F3: Leonardo Fornaroli wins qualifying at Monza

Trident team driver Leonardo Fornaroli posted the fastest time in qualifying for the final stage of the Formula 3 season in Monza. MP Motorsport’s Alex Dunne will join him from the front row in Sunday’s race.

In qualifying at Monza, the drivers were divided into two groups, each having 13 minutes. The first “Group A” consisted of drivers with even numbers, the second “Group B” – with odd numbers.

The distribution of positions at the start of Sunday’s race has undergone changes due to the qualifying format. The rider from the group with the fastest time wins pole position. The fastest rider from the second group takes second place at the start of Sunday’s race, after which the starting positions are swapped between the groups.

The top 12 drivers form a reverse grid for Saturday’s race – the sixth-fastest driver from the second group starts from pole position and the sixth-fastest driver from the first group takes second place at the start. The remaining 10 starting places are distributed according to a similar principle.

In the first qualifying group Mini, Fornaroli, Ramos, Noah Strømsted (replacing Oliver Goethe, who moved to Formula 2 in place of Franco Colapinto), Boya, Browning, Shields, Esterson, Leon, Smith, van Heupen, Intrafuvasak, Dufek and Vishnitzky went for attempts.

Max Esterson was the first to come out on track, while the rest of the first group of drivers left the pits with less than ten minutes left in the session. During the second warm-up, practically everyone stopped at the second sector, because no one wanted to make a fast attempt first, so as not to accelerate their rivals on the long straights of Monza.

Of course, this could not end well. Laurens van Heupen collided with Kasper Stuka and broke his front wing and front suspension. The thing suffered a puncture in the right rear wheel and damage to the rear suspension. Red flags appeared on the track and everyone returned to the pits. Qualifying was over for Van Heupen and Stucka.

When the green flags appeared on the track, the stopwatch had 5 minutes and 23 seconds to go until the end of the session. This time, no one stopped on the highway. The best time in the first flying lap was set by Joshua Dufek, 0.2 seconds ahead of Marie Boya.

The drivers continued to attack in the second lap and the best time was set by championship leader Leonardo Fornaroli: 1:38.287 seconds. Gabriele Mini, just one point behind Fornaroli in the individual competition, showed the second fastest time. The third result was achieved by Santiago Ramos.

In third place in the individual competition, Luke Browning only managed the seventh fastest time, which seriously hampered his title challenge as he will have to start from the seventh row in both races.

After a short break, the participants of “Group B” took to the track: Beganovich, Lindblad, Megetunif, Tramnitz, Dunne, Montoya, Stenshorn, Wurz, Zagazeta, Floersch, Mansell, Tzolov, Bedrin, Voisin and Louk.

As in the first group, the riders were in no hurry to get out on track and set off with seven minutes left in the session. And again, no one wanted to be the first to start fast laps – the riders slowed down on the Parabolica Straight. On the first fast lap, Matias Zagazeta spun at the second chicane and returned to the pits. Alex Dunne set the best time: 1:38.818 seconds.

The riders managed to start the second fastest lap, meaning no one could beat Dunne’s time and Sami Megetunif’s second result. Sebastian Montoya and Christian Mansell were able to improve and recorded a third and fourth time.

Based on the results of two qualifying sessions, Leonardo Fornaroli secured pole position for Sunday’s race and two additional points. Tim Tramnitz will start from the first position in Saturday’s sprint.

Group A results

Group B results