Euro F3 Monza: Pascal Wehrlein takes double pole for Mucke
Pascal Wehrlein kicked off his final weekend as a Formula 3 driver by claiming pole position for the opening two races of the F3 European Championship at Monza
The German, who is DTM-bound this season as replacement for Ralf Schumacher at Mercedes, stole the fastest time on the final lap from Lucas Auer, even though he reckoned he lost time diving past two cars on the run into Parabolica.
Moreover, another of the Mucke Motorsport driver's late laps was the best of the drivers' second-fastest times, which set the grid for race two.
"It was OK," he said. "The problem is that with 30 cars there's a lot of traffic.
"My last lap was my best but even then I was held up. I could have found another tenth [he was 0.152 seconds down on his best lap in the final sector]."
Auer, who held pole until the final lap, was pipped by just 0.029 seconds, although he held on to second from Raffaele Marciello, his team-mate in the Prema Powerteam squad.
Marciello grabbed the other front-row slot for race two, for which Auer drops back to third.
Fourth on the grid for both races is Red Bull junior Tom Blomqvist, who was in the same slipstreaming group as Auer to start his season in positive fashion in his EuroInternational Dallara-Mercedes.
Harry Tincknell took fifth in the lead Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen, but lost out to Alex Lynn on second-best times.
Prema driver Lynn went off twice, at Ascari and Parabolica, so could not be repaid in kind on slipstreaming by team-mate Marciello.
Fourth-row slots were claimed by Carlin's Jordan King and Mucke driver Felix Rosenqvist, who topped free practice but was angry not to get a clear lap in traffic this afternoon.
As well as King, other UK drivers to take top 10 slots included Josh Hill, who did an excellent job with minimal experience to emerge as Fortec's top runner, and Will Buller in a Nissan-engined T-Sport's Dallara.
Qualifying for race three follows later this afternoon.
Race 1 grid: Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Pascal Wehrlein Mucke Dallara-Merc 1m45.245s 2. Lucas Auer Prema Dallara-Merc 1m45.274s + 0.029s 3. Raffaele Marciello Prema Dallara-Merc 1m45.280s + 0.035s 4. Tom Blomqvist EuroIntern'l Dallara-Merc 1m45.514s + 0.269s 5. Harry Tincknell Carlin Dallara-VW 1m45.878s + 0.393s 6. Eddie Cheever Prema Dallara-Merc 1m45.638s + 0.425s 7. Alex Lynn Prema Dallara-Merc 1m45.692s + 0.447s 8. Jordan King Carlin Dallara-VW 1m45.723s + 0.478s 9. Josh Hill Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m45.806s + 0.561s 10. Dennis van de Laar Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW 1m45.870s + 0.625s 11. Felix Rosenqvist Mucke Dallara-Merc 1m45.900s + 0.655s 12. Will Buller T-Sport Dallara-Nissan 1m45.918s + 0.673s 13. Felix Serralles Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m45.919s + 0.674s 14. Sven Muller Ma-con Dallara-VW 1m46.086s + 0.841s 15. Mans Grenhagen Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW 1m46.090s + 0.845s 16. Mitchell Gilbert Mucke Dallara-Merc 1m46.119s + 0.874s 17. Pipo Derani Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m46.177s + 0.932s 18. Jann Mardenborough Carlin Dallara-VW 1m46.189s + 0.944s 19. Nicholas Latifi Carlin Dallara-VW 1m46.301s + 1.056s 20. Lucas Wolf URD Dallara-Merc 1m46.398s + 1.153s 21. Roy Nissany Mucke Dallara-Merc 1m46.424s + 1.179s 22. Antonio Giovinazzi Double R Dallara-Merc 1m46.486s + 1.241s 23. Sandro Zeller Zeller Dallara-Merc 1m46.936s + 1.691s 24. Andre Rudersdorf Ma-con Dallara-VW 1m47.085s + 1.840s 25. Gary Thompson Ferraris Dallara-Merc 1m47.131s + 1.886s 26. Spike Goddard T-Sport Dallara-Nissan 1m46.388s + 2.031s 27. Sean Gelael Double R Dallara-Merc 1m47.437s + 2.192s 28. Tatiana Calderon Double R Dallara-Merc 1m47.675s + 2.430s 29. Dmitry Suranovich Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m48.596s + 3.351s 30. Michela Cerruti Ferraris Dallara-Merc 1m48.836s + 3.591s Race 2 grid: Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Pascal Wehrlein Mucke Dallara-Merc 1m45.307s 2. Raffaele Marciello Prema Dallara-Merc 1m45.559s + 0.252s 3. Lucas Auer Prema Dallara-Merc 1m45.626s + 0.319s 4. Tom Blomqvist EuroIntern'l Dallara-Merc 1m45.626s + 0.319s 5. Alex Lynn Prema Dallara-Merc 1m45.820s + 0.513s 6. Harry Tincknell Carlin Dallara-VW 1m45.873s + 0.566s 7. Felix Rosenqvist Mucke Dallara-Merc 1m45.917s + 0.610s 8. Jordan King Carlin Dallara-VW 1m45.920s + 0.613s 9. Will Buller T-Sport Dallara-Nissan 1m45.974s + 0.667s 10. Felix Serralles Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m46.049s + 0.742s 11. Mans Grenhagen Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW 1m46.117s + 0.810s 12. Eddie Cheever Prema Dallara-Merc 1m46.210s + 0.903s 13. Dennis van de Laar Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW 1m46.210s + 0.903s 14. Pipo Derani Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m46.262s + 0.955s 15. Josh Hill Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m46.399s + 1.092s 16. Sven Muller Ma-con Dallara-VW 1m46.404s + 1.097s 17. Jann Mardenborough Carlin Dallara-VW 1m46.408s + 1.101s 18. Nicholas Latifi Carlin Dallara-VW 1m46.430s + 1.123s 19. Mitchell Gilbert Mucke Dallara-Merc 1m46.548s + 1.241s 20. Roy Nissany Mucke Dallara-Merc 1m46.574s + 1.267s 21. Lucas Wolf URD Dallara-Merc 1m46.748s + 1.441s 22. Antonio Giovinazzi Double R Dallara-Merc 1m46.785s + 1.478s 23. Andre Rudersdorf Ma-con Dallara-VW 1m47.190s + 1.883s 24. Gary Thompson Ferraris Dallara-Merc 1m47.311s + 2.004s 25. Spike Goddard T-Sport Dallara-Nissan 1m47.461s + 2.154s 26. Sean Gelael Double R Dallara-Merc 1m47.484s + 2.177s 27. Tatiana Calderon Double R Dallara-Merc 1m47.722s + 2.415s 28. Sandro Zeller Zeller Dallara-Merc 1m47.982s + 2.675s 29. Dmitry Suranovich Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m48.640s + 3.333s 30. Michela Cerruti Ferraris Dallara-Merc 1m48.985s + 3.678s
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