
Trident’s Jack Doohan overcame the wet conditions of Spa Francorchamps to clinch pole position for 2021 Belgian Race Three, after Trident teammate – Clement Novalak topped Practice.
Difficult weather conditions affected running throughout Practice and Qualifying as F3 cars initially faced damp conditions in Practice, followed by a wet track in Qualifying which began to dry towards the end.
Trident though were the only team to master the elements as Novalak topped Practice whilst Doohan claimed pole position for Sunday’s Belgian Race Three.
Now here is a full roundup of Friday’s F3 action in Belgium across both sessions.
Practice
Practice began in damp conditions as morning fog slowly but surely cleared with ART GP’s Aleksandr Smolyar setting the initial pace on 2m 06.748 ahead of Jenzer’s Johnathan Hoggard as Smolyar’s teammate – Frederik Vesti found himself third quickest in a slow start as teams adapted to damp conditions.
Ayumu Iwasa and Zdenek Chovanec suffered spins at Campus and Les Combes respectively in a three minute spell, as Jack Doohan went fastest with 2m 06.356 in the 20th minute, only to be displaced by Lorenzo Colombo eight minutes later after the latter went 0.256s quicker.
Track conditions continued to dry up which caused times to fall further but only Clement Novalak and Oliver Rasmussen managed to better Colombo’s time, as Novalak topped the session with 2m 05.330 ahead of Rasmussen and Colombo with Doohan and Jak Crawford rounding out the top five.
Position | Driver | Team | Time |
1 | Clement Novalak | Trident | 2m 05.330 |
2 | Oliver Rasmussen | HWA Racelab | + 0.495 |
3 | Lorenzo Colombo | Campos | + 0.770 |
4 | Jack Doohan | Trident | + 0.927 |
5 | Jak Crawford | Hitech GP | + 1.029 |
6 | Frederik Vesti | ART GP | + 1.062 |
7 | Roman Stanek | Hitech GP | + 1.118 |
8 | Aleksandr Smolyar | ART GP | + 1.379 |
9 | Olli Caldwell | PREMA | + 1.451 |
10 | Johnathan Hoggard | Jenzer | + 1.468 |
11 | Ayumu Iwasa | Hitech GP | + 1.483 |
12 | Matteo Nannini | HWA Racelab | + 1.511 |
13 | Dennis Hauger | PREMA | + 1.588 |
14 | Arthur Leclerc | PREMA | + 1.614 |
15 | Victor Martins | MP Motorsport | + 1.732 |
16 | Logan Sargeant | Charouz | + 1.845 |
17 | Caio Collet | MP Motorsport | + 1.857 |
18 | Juan Manuel Correa | ART GP | + 1.911 |
19 | David Schumacher | Trident | + 2.138 |
20 | Hunter Yeany | Charouz | + 2.167 |
21 | Calan Williams | Jenzer | + 2.331 |
22 | Rafael Villagomez | HWA Racelab | + 2.408 |
23 | Laszlo Toth | Campos | + 2.418 |
24 | Zdenek Chovanec | Charouz | + 2.574 |
25 | Tijmen Van Der Helm | MP Motorsport | + 2.874 |
26 | Jonny Edgar | Carlin | + 3.002 |
27 | Ido Cohen | Carlin | + 3.085 |
28 | Amaury Cordeel | Campos | + 4.163 |
29 | Filip Ugran | Jenzer | No Time Set |
Qualifying
Heavy rain returned during W Series Practice and lingered around for the opening minutes of Qualifying, as Doohan set the initial fastest lap time of 2m 21.953 which would go unbeaten, despite Novalak, Smolyar, Logan Sargeant and Victor Martins rounding out the initial top five after opening fliers were done.
Only Jak Crawford, Ayumu Iwasa and Calan Williams found improvement on their second fliers as Chovanec suffered a brief spin, although track conditions soon began to dry up as all three PREMA cars struggled to break the top ten with Arthur Leclerc eventually fastest in 13th position.
Majority of drivers opted to do quick pit stops and head back out on track, which enabled Martins to leap up to second ahead of Smolyar and Caio Collet as Sargeant displaced Novalak to qualify sixth fastest.
Doohan failed to improve on his first flier for rest of session, yet eventually hung on for his maiden pole position in F3 after Tijmen Van Der Helm’s stoppage at Blanchimont brought out the red flag with a minute left on the clock thus prematurely ending the session.
Doohan’s pole position also saw him cut his title deficit to Dennis Hauger down to 59 points after the Norwegian could only qualify 14th fastest for Sunday’s Race Three.
Lorenzo Colombo meanwhile inherited reverse-pole for Saturday’s Belgian Race One after qualifying 12th with Jak Crawford joining him on the front row.
Position | Driver | Team | Time |
1 | Jack Doohan | Trident | 2m 21.953 |
2 | Victor Martins | MP Motorsport | + 0.704 |
3 | Aleksandr Smolyar | ART GP | + 0.769 |
4 | Caio Collett | MP Motorsport | + 0.783 |
5 | Logan Sargeant | Charouz | + 0.822 |
6 | Clement Novalak | Trident | + 0.858 |
7 | Frederik Vesti | ART GP | + 1.315 |
8 | David Schumacher | Trident | + 1.800 |
9 | Johnathan Hoggard | Jenzer | + 1.832 |
10 | Roman Stanek | Hitech GP | + 1.863 |
11 | Jak Crawford | Hitech GP | + 2.011 |
12 | Lorenzo Colombo | Campos | + 2.109 |
13 | Arthur Leclerc | PREMA | + 2.301 |
14 | Dennis Hauger | PREMA | + 2.335 |
15 | Matteo Nannini | HWA Racelab | + 2.435 |
16 | Rafael Villagomez | HWA Racelab | + 2.750 |
17 | Ayumu Iwasa | Hitech GP | + 2.895 |
18 | Olli Caldwell | PREMA | + 3.072 |
19 | Calan Williams | Jenzer | + 3.124 |
20 | Jonny Edgar | Carlin | + 3.185 |
21 | Tijmen Van Der Helm | MP Motorsport | + 3.219 |
22 | Amaury Cordeel | Campos | + 3.433 |
23 | Oliver Rasmussen | HWA Racelab | + 3.660 |
24 | Ido Cohen | Carlin | + 3.943 |
25 | Laszlo Toth | Campos | + 4.008 |
26 | Hunter Yeany | Charouz | + 4.116 |
27 | Juan Manuel Correa | ART GP | + 4.272 |
28 | Zdenek Chovanec | Charouz | + 4.762 |
29 | Filip Ugran | Jenzer | No Time Set |
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