PREMA’s Dennis Hauger topped both Practice and Qualifying to secure his maiden pole position in F3 for Sunday’s Spanish Race Three.
Hauger this season has switched from Hitech GP to PREMA and enjoyed a strong Practice session, which he followed up with pole position in a dramatic Qualifying session.
Nevertheless both sessions saw the field very close together with the top 21 drivers split by just under a second come the end of Qualifying, as we bring a full roundup of Friday’s F3 action.
Practice
Hitech GP’s trio of Jak Crawford, Roman Stanek and Ayumu Iwasa were the first drivers out on track, only for the red flag to appear just seven minutes into the session after Carlin’s Jonny Edgar came to a halt at Turn Four.
Proceedings recommenced three minutes later with Carlin’s Ido Cohen posting the first representative lap of 1m 35.163 in the 14th minute.
Campos’ Amaury Cordeel displaced Cohen just two minutes later but PREMA’s Dennis Hauger set the session topping time six minutes later, posting a 1m 33.596 to finish top from MP Motorsports’ Victor Martins and ART GP’s Frederik Vesti.
Arthur Leclerc, Aleksandr Smolyar, Clement Novalak, Logan Sargeant, Jack Doohan, Caio Collet and Olli Caldwell round out the top ten, although the top 19 were split by only 0.973 seconds.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Dennis Hauger | PREMA | 1m 33.596 |
| 2 | Victor Martins | MP Motorsport | + 0.215 |
| 3 | Frederik Vesti | ART GP | + 0.275 |
| 4 | Arthur Leclerc | PREMA | + 0.327 |
| 5 | Aleksandr Smolyar | ART GP | + 0.338 |
| 6 | Clement Novalak | Trident | + 0.493 |
| 7 | Logan Sargeant | Charouz | + 0.533 |
| 8 | Jack Doohan | Trident | + 0.555 |
| 9 | Caio Collet | MP Motorsport | + 0.570 |
| 10 | Olli Caldwell | PREMA | + 0.639 |
| 11 | Roman Stanek | Hitech GP | + 0.687 |
| 12 | Matteo Nannini | HWA Racelab | + 0.728 |
| 13 | David Schumacher | Trident | + 0.787 |
| 14 | Ayumu Iwasa | Hitech GP | + 0.813 |
| 15 | Amaury Cordeel | Campos | + 0.819 |
| 16 | Kaylen Frederick | Carlin | + 0.863 |
| 17 | Calan Williams | Jenzer | + 0.885 |
| 18 | Oliver Rasmussen | HWA Racelab | + 0.928 |
| 19 | Jonny Edgar | Carlin | + 0.973 |
| 20 | Lorenzo Colombo | Campos | + 1.024 |
| 21 | Jak Crawford | Hitech GP | + 1.187 |
| 22 | Enzo Fittipaldi | Charouz | + 1.483 |
| 23 | Juan Manuel Correa | ART GP | + 1.506 |
| 24 | Rafael Villagomez | HWA Racelab | + 1.534 |
| 25 | Ido Cohen | Carlin | + 1.567 |
| 26 | Reshad De Gerus | Charouz | + 1.759 |
| 27 | Laszlo Toth | Campos | + 1.870 |
| 28 | Tijmen Van Der Helm | MP Motorsport | + 1.979 |
| 29 | Pierre-Louis Chovet | Jenzer | + 2.105 |
| 30 | Filip Ugran | Jenzer | + 2.222 |
Qualifying
Qualifying was delayed 10 minutes following issues getting all 30 cars out of the support paddock, but almost everyone ventured straight out as soon as the session eventually commenced.
Doohan immediately set the pace with 1m 33.580 ahead of Matteo Nannini who was just 0.025s off Doohan’s benchmark time, as Leclerc, Sargeant and Caldwell rounded out the top five after the opening runs.
All drivers this season have three sets of tyres to lay with during Qualifying so many swiftly opted for a second run soon after pitting at the end of their opening runs, with Doohan improving his benchmark to a 1m 33.091 ahead of Hauger, Novalak and Vesti.
Most drivers opted to use their third available set of tyres which proved the difference for Hauger, who posted a 1m 32.904 to snatch his first-ever F3 pole position for Sunday’s main race from Doohan by just 0.006s.
Martins struck at the very end of the session to put his MP Motorsport third on the grid ahead of Nannini, Vesti, Caldwell, Novalak, Sargeant, David Schumacher and Collet who round out the top ten as 0.977s separated the top 21 drivers.
Carlin’s Jonny Edgar will start tomorrow’s first race from reverse-pole after qualifying 12th quickest, with ART GP’s Aleksandr Smolyar alongside him on the front row as the top 12 of qualifying are reversed for the Race One grid.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Dennis Hauger | PREMA | 1m 32.904 |
| 2 | Jack Doohan | Trident | + 0.006 |
| 3 | Victor Martins | MP Motorsport | + 0.061 |
| 4 | Matteo Nannini | HWA Racelab | + 0.209 |
| 5 | Frederik Vesti | ART GP | + 0.269 |
| 6 | Olli Caldwell | PREMA | + 0.280 |
| 7 | Clement Novalak | Trident | + 0.321 |
| 8 | Logan Sargeant | Charouz | + 0.359 |
| 9 | David Schumacher | Trident | + 0.370 |
| 10 | Caio Collet | MP Motorsport | + 0.401 |
| 11 | Aleksandr Smolyar | ART GP | + 0.451 |
| 12 | Jonny Edgar | Carlin | + 0.466 |
| 13 | Juan Manuel Correa | ART GP | + 0.555 |
| 14 | Roman Stanek | Hitech GP | + 0.618 |
| 15 | Arthur Leclerc | PREMA | + 0.631 |
| 16 | Oliver Rasmussen | HWA Racelab | + 0.733 |
| 17 | Rafael Villagomez | HWA Racelab | + 0.771 |
| 18 | Enzo Fittipaldi | Charouz | + 0.902 |
| 19 | Ayumu Iwasa | Hitech GP | + 0.961 |
| 20 | Jak Crawford | Hitech GP | + 0.972 |
| 21 | Calan Williams | Jenzer | + 0.977 |
| 22 | Tijmen Van Der Helm | MP Motorsport | + 1.004 |
| 23 | Kaylen Frederick | Carlin | + 1.057 |
| 24 | Lorenzo Colombo | Campos | + 1.120 |
| 25 | Amaury Cordeel | Campos | + 1.287 |
| 26 | Ido Cohen | Carlin | + 1.429 |
| 27 | Laszlo Toth | Campos | + 1.566 |
| 28 | Reshad De Gerus | Charouz | + 1.871 |
| 29 | Pierre Louis Chovet | Jenzer | + 1.874 |
| 30 | Filip Ugran | Jenzer | + 2.228 |
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