Jack Doohan Takes Pole For 2021 F3 Russian Feature Race

Trident’s Jack Doohan cut his title deficit down to 39 points after taking pole position for Sunday’s 2021 F3 Russian Feature Race, following late transponder drama across the grid.

Caio Collet was quickest in Practice but Doohan ultimately pulled it out of the bag in a chaotic Qualifying, albeit aided by a steward correction after transponder issues hindered the timing sheets during the final runs as his Trident teammate – Clement Novalak looked to had snatched pole position for Sunday’s Feature Race.

Race One was also brought forward to later this afternoon due to unpredictable weather forecast for tomorrow, with the race set to start at 5:25pm local time (3:25pm BST UK Time).

Now here is a full roundup of F3 Practice and Qualifying.

 

Practice

Embed from Getty Images

A slow start to F3 Practice in Sochi saw several drivers opt for installation laps as ART GP’s Aleksandr Smolyar set the initial pace, before Arthur Leclerc and Jonny Edgar featured amongst those who displaced the Russian as everyone else got up to full speed.

Juan Manuel Correa went top in the 12th minute ahead of Collet by 0.186 seconds with the Brazilian quickly bumped down by Leclerc, Doohan, Olli Caldwell and Dennis Hauger just minutes later.

Collet though stormed to the top of the timesheet in the 16th minute with a 1m 54.682 ahead of Clement Novalak by 0.780s, with the pair heading Logan Sargeant, Victor Martins and Frederik Vesti at the halfway point.

Leclerc and Hauger soon afterwards improved to third and fourth ahead of final runs which saw carnage unfold in the final sector, as almost every car decided to back one another up as they tried to find space for their last flying laps of the session.

Collet ultimately found 0.595s on his previous best lap time as he topped Practice ahead of MP Motorsport and Alpine Academy teammate, Victor Martins who was just 0.083s slower than the Brazilian.

Vesti, Ayumu Iwasa, Matteo Nannini, Novalak, Sargeant, Hauger, Oliver Rasmussen and Leclerc rounded out the top ten, as Doohan stopped out on track after the checkered flag.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Caio Collet	MP Motorsport	1m 54.087
2	Victor Martins	MP Motorsport	+ 0.083
3	Frederik Vesti	ART GP	+ 0.297
4	Ayumu Iwasa	Hitech GP	+ 0.302
5	Matteo Nannini	HWA Racelab	+ 0.308
6	Clement Novalak	Trident	+ 0.333
7	Logan Sargeant	Charouz	+ 0.339
8	Dennis Hauger	PREMA	+ 0.376
9	Oliver Rasmussen	HWA Racelab	+ 0.421
10	Arthur Leclerc	PREMA	+ 0.504
11	Jak Crawford	Hitech GP	+ 0.514
12	Jack Doohan	Trident	+ 0.568
13	Roman Stanek	Hitech GP	+ 0.576
14	Aleksandr Smolyar	ART GP	+ 0.596
15	Calan Williams	Jenzer	+ 0.606
16	Johnathan Hoggard	Jenzer	+ 0.752
17	Olli Caldwell	PREMA	+ 0.754
18	Juan Manuel Correa	ART GP	+ 0.884
19	David Schumacher	Trident	+ 0.920
20	Jonny Edgar	Carlin	+ 1.077
21	Lorenzo Colombo	Campos	+ 1.158
22	Tijmen Van Der Helm	MP Motorsport	+ 1.346
23	Kaylen Frederick	Carlin	+ 1.595
24	Ido Cohen	Carlin	+ 1.896
25	Laszlo Toth	Campos	+ 1.927
26	Amaury Cordeel	Campos	+ 1.933
27	Filip Ugran	Jenzer	+ 2.497
28	Rafael Villagomez	HWA Racelab	+ 2.545
29	Ayrton Simmons	Charouz	+ 2.594
30	Zdenek Chovanec	Charouz	+ 2.995

 

Qualifying

Embed from Getty Images

Doohan led the field out for the opening runs as several drivers opted for multiple warmup laps but Novalak and Caldwell complained about Doohan’s warmup tactics, which forced the chasing pack to bunch up together instead of finding space.

Caio Collet however was the driver who emerged quickest from the first flying laps with 1m 55.131 as the session was red flagged just eight minutes into the session, after Jonny Edgar crashed at Turn 15.

The session resumed seven minutes later with Doohan quickly lighting up the timing sheet on his second flier on his first set of tyres, as the Aussie went top with 1m 54.927 ahead of Collet and Vesti.

Novalak though looked to had pulled off a last-gasp Feature Race pole on his final flier of the session with 1m 54.648 to deny Trident teammate – Doohan four vital points in his title fight with Hauger, until transponder issues saw the Qualifying classification corrected post-session.

Doohan consequently was handed pole position with 1m 54.514 ahead of Novalak in a Trident front-row lock out for Sunday’s Feature Race with Jenzer’s Johnathan Hoggard lining up third ahead of Vesti, Correa, Lorenzo Colombo, Smolyar and Collet.

Hauger will start ninth ahead of Jak Crawford, Sargeant and Martins with the top 12 set to be reversed for Race One which will now be held later today at 5:25pm local time (3:25pm BST UK Time), owing to unpredictable weather forecast for Saturday (25 September).

Doohan meanwhile has trimmed his championship deficit to 39 points but Hauger can wrap up the title if he outscores his title rival later today in the opening race.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Jack Doohan	Trident	1m 54.514
2	Clement Novalak	Trident	+ 0.134
3	Johnathan Hoggard	Jenzer	+ 0.173
4	Frederik Vesti	ART GP	+ 0.198
5	Juan Manuel Correa	ART GP	+ 0.241
6	Lorenzo Colombo	Campos	+ 0.245
7	Aleksandr Smolyar	ART GP	+ 0.251
8	Caio Collet	MP Motorsport	+ 0.258
9	Dennis Hauger	PREMA	+ 0.312
10	Jak Crawford	Hitech GP	+ 0.339
11	Logan Sargeant	Charouz	+ 0.345
12	Victor Martins	MP Motorsport	+ 0.445
13	Roman Stanek	Hitech GP	+ 0.463
14	Arthur Leclerc	PREMA	+ 0.575
15	Olli Caldwell	PREMA	+ 0.637
16	Oliver Rasmussen	HWA Racelab	+ 0.652
17	David Schumacher	Trident	+ 0.714
18	Ayumu Iwasa	Hitech GP	+ 0.788
19	Matteo Nannini	HWA Racelab	+ 0.905
20	Amaury Cordeel	Campos	+ 0.952
21	Calan Williams	Jenzer	+ 0.989
22	Kaylen Frederick	Carlin	+ 1.166
23	Rafael Villagomez	HWA Racelab	+ 1.493
24	Filip Ugran	Jenzer	+ 1.749
25	Tijmen Van Der Helm	MP Motorsport	+ 2.011
26	Ayrton Simmons	Charouz	+ 2.013
27	Laszlo Toth	Campos	+ 2.086
28	Ido Cohen	Carlin	+ 2.515
29	Zdenek Chovanec	Charouz	+ 2.650
30	Jonny Edgar	Carlin	No Time Set