Frederik Vesti clinched pole position for Sunday’s F3 French Feature Race with a stunning lap to record his second pole position in the series.
Vesti delivered a late Qualifying stunner to snatch pole from championship leader, Dennis Hauger who had topped the morning session and looked set for a dominant Friday across both sessions until the Dane delivered his pole-clinching lap.
Now here is a roundup of Friday’s F3 action at Circuit Paul Ricard.
Practice
A quiet start to the session saw Pierre-Louis Chovet set the initial pace after being called up at Campos to replace Laszlo Toth, after the Hungarian tested positive for Coronavirus.
Amaury Cordeel soon afterwards displaced Chovet before Caio Collet soon took control at the summit with 1m 53.168 ahead of Vesti.
Both drivers were however displaced by Hauger just mere moments before the red flag came out following a crash for Reshad De Gerus at Turn Six in the 24th minute.
The session resumed six minutes later with Rafael Villagomez then spinning and stalling at Turn 11 eight minutes to cause a brief Virtual Safety Car, as the Mexican recovered once a clear space opened up on the packed circuit.
Several drivers eventually found time in the closing moments as Hauger retained the fastest time on a 1m 51.478 ahead of Collet and Jack Doohan as Vesti slipped to fourth ahead of Victor Martins who rounds out the top five ahead of Jak Crawford, Aleksandr Smolyar, Jonny Edgar, Calan Williams and Johnathan Hoggard.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Dennis Hauger | PREMA | 1m 51.478 |
| 2 | Caio Collet | MP Motorsport | + 0.252 |
| 3 | Jack Doohan | Trident | + 0.348 |
| 4 | Frederik Vesti | ART GP | + 0.376 |
| 5 | Victor Martins | MP Motorsport | + 0.453 |
| 6 | Jak Crawford | Hitech GP | + 0.517 |
| 7 | Aleksandr Smolyar | ART GP | + 0.736 |
| 8 | Jonny Edgar | Carlin | + 0.739 |
| 9 | Calan Williams | Jenzer | + 0.773 |
| 10 | Johnathan Hoggard | Jenzer | + 0.777 |
| 11 | Arthur Leclerc | PREMA | + 0.787 |
| 12 | Logan Sargeant | Charouz | + 0.822 |
| 13 | Matteo Nannini | HWA Racelab | + 0.919 |
| 14 | David Schumacher | Trident | + 0.936 |
| 15 | Olli Caldwell | PREMA | + 1.012 |
| 16 | Juan Manuel Correa | ART GP | + 1.078 |
| 17 | Amaury Cordeel | Campos | + 1.098 |
| 18 | Lorenzo Colombo | Campos | + 1.194 |
| 19 | Oliver Rasmussen | HWA Racelab | + 1.263 |
| 20 | Ayumu Iwasa | Hitech GP | + 1.278 |
| 21 | Tijmen Van Der Helm | MP Motorsport | + 1.282 |
| 22 | Pierre-Louis Chovet | Campos | + 1.363 |
| 23 | Enzo Fittipaldi | Charouz | + 1.374 |
| 24 | Clement Novalak | Trident | + 1.382 |
| 25 | Roman Stanek | Hitech GP | + 1.639 |
| 26 | Kaylen Frederick | Carlin | + 1.725 |
| 27 | Rafael Villagomez | HWA Racelab | + 1.798 |
| 28 | Filip Ugran | Jenzer | + 2.068 |
| 29 | Ido Cohen | Carlin | + 2.174 |
| 30 | Reshad De Gerus | Charouz | + 14.128 |
Qualifying
…………………………………………
Trident’s Jack Doohan led the pack out as everyone opted for two warm-up laps, only for only Aleksandr Smolyar and Frederik Vesti to post lap times prior to a five minute red flag after Arthur Leclerc grinded to a halt at Turn Seven with damage from an unseen incident.
Once the session resumed, Hauger set the pace ahead of Collet by 0.120s as Martins, Doohan and Crawford rounded out the top five after the opening laps.
Hauger then went even quicker on the first flier of his second run as he posted a 1m 51.063 ahead of Collet, who got demoted by Martins and Doohan, as Vesti delivered a shock 1m 50.882 to clinch pole for Sunday’s main race.
Several drivers including Hauger tried to respond but ultimately lacked the tyre life needed to improve their lap times as Vesti sealed pole position ahead of Hauger, Martins, Doohan, Collet, Clement Novalak, Smolyar, and Ayumu Iwasa who complete the first four rows.
Having re-joined Sauber Academy, Juan Manuel Correa heads up an all American fifth row ahead of compatriot, Logan Sargeant.
Matteo Nannini meanwhile dropped from fifth to 13th and spun on his final lap as Jenzer’s Calan Williams clinched reverse-pole for Race One tomorrow (19 June).
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Frederik Vesti | ART GP | 1m 50.882 |
| 2 | Dennis Hauger | PREMA | + 0.181 |
| 3 | Victor Martins | MP Motorsport | + 0.240 |
| 4 | Jack Doohan | Trident | + 0.283 |
| 5 | Caio Collet | MP Motorsport | + 0.305 |
| 6 | Clement Novalak | Trident | + 0.331 |
| 7 | Aleksandr Smolyar | ART GP | + 0.387 |
| 8 | Ayumu Iwasa | Hitech GP | + 0.602 |
| 9 | Juan Manuel Correa | ART GP | + 0.621 |
| 10 | Logan Sargeant | Charouz | + 0.643 |
| 11 | David Schumacher | Trident | + 0.668 |
| 12 | Calan Williams | Jenzer | + 0.693 |
| 13 | Matteo Nannini | HWA Racelab | + 0.731 |
| 14 | Olli Caldwell | PREMA | + 0.766 |
| 15 | Tijmen Van Der Helm | MP Motorsport | + 0.787 |
| 16 | Jak Crawford | Hitech GP | + 0.836 |
| 17 | Roman Stanek | Hitech GP | + 0.890 |
| 18 | Lorenzo Colombo | Campos | + 0.927 |
| 19 | Amaury Cordeel | Campos | + 1.047 |
| 20 | Johnathan Hoggard | Jenzer | + 1.169 |
| 21 | Enzo Fittipaldi | Charouz | + 1.452 |
| 22 | Kaylen Frederick | Carlin | + 1.571 |
| 23 | Jonny Edgar | Carlin | + 1.571 |
| 24 | Oliver Rasmussen | HWA Racelab | + 1.593 |
| 25 | Pierre-Louis Chovet | Campos | + 1.682 |
| 26 | Reshad De Gerus | Charouz | + 1.913 |
| 27 | Filip Ugran | Jenzer | + 1.941 |
| 28 | Rafael Villagomez | HWA Racelab | + 2.064 |
| 29 | Ido Cohen | Carlin | + 2.141 |
| 30 | Arthur Leclerc | PREMA | + 39.357 |
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