A new format caused drama in Formula 3 Qualifying at Monza that saw mixed results for the title contenders.
Qualifying was split into two groups for Monza for the first time, the 15 even-numbered drivers getting 13 minutes of running time in Group A, and then the 15 odd-numbered drivers getting 13 minutes of running time in Group B. In the end, the group with the fastest pole time will line up ahead of their counterpart in the slower group.
Leonardo Fornaroli took pole position for the final race in Group A, cementing his championship lead. Alex Dunne was fastest in Group B and will start second in the Feature Race.
Group A
Group A contained the top three drivers in the title fight, Fornaroli, Gabriele Mini, and Luke Browning. Although the drivers had only 13 minutes as opposed to their typical 30, they took their time getting out on track. In fact, it was well over halfway through the session before anyone went to set a flying lap.
And even then there was drama, as traffic towards the end of the build lap caused the field to bunch up, no one willing to go first and allow another driver to get a tow from them.
It all resulted in Laurens Van Hoepen making contact with Kacper Sztuka, resulting in a red flag with five and a half minutes to go in the session.
They headed back out (now minus Sztuka and Van Hoepen) on track not long after, with the time ticking down again and no one but American driver Max Esterton having set any sort of lap time.
But there was still time for everyone to get two laps in, Joshua Dufek taking provisional pole for the group with his first lap with a time of 1:38.832. He held it through everyone’s first laps, as the championship leader Fornaroli only managed fourth place, his rivals Mini and Browning dropping to sixth and seventh respectively.
Needing a good final lap, Browning was stuck behind Esterton and made the decision to back off of his first attempt at a second lap and go again. As he began his second attempt again, Fornaroli took the top spot with a 1:38.287, and Mini quickly grabbed second place behind him.
Browning managed to improve, but only a little, jumping up from ninth to seventh, and just losing out on a spot on the reverse grid for tomorrow’s Sprint Race.
So Fornaroli cemented a guaranteed top two spot, with Mini and Santiago Ramos close behind. Dufek came fourth, with Mari Boya and Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak grabbing the final spots in the top six.
Group B
While the top three title contenders had their chance in Group A, the other three drivers with a shot at the championship were all in Group B: rookie Arvid Lindblad, Dino Beganovic, and Christian Mansell.
Once again the drivers delayed coming out of the pits, letting the clock run down on their 13 minutes before they got going. There was only seven and a half minutes left when they decided to make their way out on track.
Mansell led the field as everyone got bunched up at the end of their build laps before finally he finally went for it with Nikola Tsolov on his heels.
But a yellow flag came out in Sectors 1 and 2 as Jenzer Motorsport’s Matias Zagazeta stopped on track, and Mansell, Tsolov, and several other drivers slowed down and lost their first lap time.
The drivers that didn’t back off benefitted by getting a fast lap in, Dunne being the one to go fastest with a lap time of 1:38.818.
Making a hectic attempt at one last flying lap, Tsolov managed to improved to fourth before getting beaten out by Mansell, and Sebastian Montoya managed to jump up to third.
But no one could beat Dunne’s first time, leaving him with the fastest time in Group B, but six tenths slower than Fornaroli’s time in Group A.
So the championship leader grabbed pole for the Feature Race, with Dunne starting in second. Sami Meguetounif came second in Group B, followed by Montoya, Mansell, Beganovic, and Tim Tramnitz. Lindblad ended up ninth, putting him down in 18th to start for both races in Monza.
Full results can be found here.
Feature Image Credit: James Sutton – Getty Images