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Monza European F3: Felix Rosenqvist takes race one pole for Prema

Felix Rosenqvist earned pole position for the first race of the Formula 3 European Championship weekend at Monza

The Swede put himself in a great position to close the gap to championship leader Antonio Giovinazzi and current runner-up Charles Leclerc, who both finished in the lower reaches of the top 10 in warm-and-humid conditions.

While many runners got held up in huge trains of cars searching for track position, Rosenqvist gave himself a clear space in his Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes and reaped the reward to head team-mate Jake Dennis, who improved to second fastest on the final lap, by 0.183 seconds.

"Sometimes you're lucky and get a good tow; sometimes it doesn't work," said Rosenqvist. "My strategy was to go alone and maybe get a little tow whenever there was an opportunity."

He added that he was on a quicker lap at the end when he was called into the pits by the team, with no chance of his pole position coming under threat.

With Dennis taking a five-place grid penalty for his incident with Sam MacLeod in the Pau Grand Prix, that elevates Santino Ferrucci to his first European F3 front row.

The American, who before Wednesday's test had only ever seen Monza as a six-year-old when the family visited the 2004 Italian Grand Prix, held second place for much of the session in his Mucke Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes before Dennis's late improvement.

The Mucke cars, like the Prema machines, are running with a small single plane at the top of the rear wing, and Ferrucci paid tribute to team-mate Mikkel Jensen, with whom he towed to quick times.

London-born Thai Alexander Albon took fourth fastest, and was the leading Volkswagen-engined runner - the Lotus junior will move up to third on the grid with Dennis's penalty.

Similarly, Raoul Hyman moves up from fifth to fourth in the starting line-up, the South African BRDC Formula 4 graduate putting in easily his best qualifying performance so far with Team West-Tec.

The last two beneficiaries of Dennis's penalty are Prema team-mate Lance Stroll and Jensen, who will share the third row of the grid for the opening race.

Giovinazzi will start eighth. The Carlin driver has been chasing an understeer problem since Wednesday's test and, although the car is improving, he admitted there was still work to do before second qualifying.

Another Carlin runner, George Russell, showed a glimpse of a return to qualifying form, the Brit taking ninth place ahead of Leclerc, who also experienced understeer as well as getting frustrated in traffic.

Two more grid penalties will be served by Alessio Lorandi and Dorian Boccolacci. Lorandi had an engine change after Wednesday's test so will be relegated 10 places for each race at his home weekend, converting his 18th position to 28th.

Boccolacci is taking the last of his three penalties, hanging over from the Pau weekend, in race one, dropping him from 23rd to 33rd.

QUALIFYING TIMES:

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap
1 Felix Rosenqvist Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 1m43.766s -
2 Jake Dennis Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 1m43.949s 0.183s
3 Santino Ferrucci KFZTeile24 Mucke Motorsport Dallara/Mercedes 1m43.970s 0.204s
4 Alexander Albon Signature Dallara/Volkswagen 1m44.027s 0.261s
5 Raoul Hyman Team West-Tec F3 Dallara/Mercedes 1m44.052s 0.286s
6 Lance Stroll Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 1m44.174s 0.408s
7 Mikkel Jensen KFZTeile24 Mucke Motorsport Dallara/Mercedes 1m44.201s 0.435s
8 Antonio Giovinazzi Jagonya Ayam with Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m44.204s 0.438s
9 George Russell Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m44.259s 0.493s
10 Charles Leclerc Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Volkswagen 1m44.269s 0.503s
11 Pietro Fittipaldi Fortec Motorsports Dallara/Mercedes 1m44.328s 0.562s
12 Brandon Maisano Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 1m44.340s 0.574s
13 Arjun Maini Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Volkswagen 1m44.411s 0.645s
14 Matt Solomon Double R Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m44.453s 0.687s
15 Markus Pommer Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m44.466s 0.700s
16 Ryan Tveter Jagonya Ayam with Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m44.470s 0.704s
17 Sergio Sette Camara Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m44.485s 0.719s
18 Alessio Lorandi Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Volkswagen 1m44.561s 0.795s
19 Maximilian Guenther KFZTeile24 Mucke Motorsport Dallara/Mercedes 1m44.585s 0.819s
20 Callum Ilott Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m44.748s 0.982s
21 Julio Moreno ThreeBond with T-Sport Dallara/NBE 1m44.749s 0.983s
22 Artur Janosz EuroInternational Dallara/Mercedes 1m44.750s 0.984s
23 Dorian Boccolacci Signature Dallara/Volkswagen 1m44.777s 1.011s
24 Gustavo Menezes Jagonya Ayam with Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m44.844s 1.078s
25 Michele Beretta KFZTeile24 Mucke Motorsport Dallara/Mercedes 1m44.867s 1.101s
26 Sam MacLeod Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m44.884s 1.118s
27 Kang Ling KFZTeile24 Mucke Motorsport Dallara/Mercedes 1m44.944s 1.178s
28 Matt Rao Fortec Motorsports Dallara/Mercedes 1m44.952s 1.186s
29 Fabian Schiller Team West-Tec F3 Dallara/Mercedes 1m45.020s 1.254s
30 Nicolas Pohler Double R Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m45.108s 1.342s
31 Tatiana Calderon Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m45.140s 1.374s
32 Martin Cao Fortec Motorsports Dallara/Mercedes 1m45.273s 1.507s
33 Nabil Jeffri Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m45.339s 1.573s
34 Facu Regalia EuroInternational Dallara/Mercedes 1m45.357s 1.591s
35 Mahaveer Raghunathan Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m45.426s 1.660s


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