Abu Dhabi GP3: Albon takes pole to reduce Leclerc's points lead
Alexander Albon gave his GP3 title chances a boost by claiming pole at the Abu Dhabi decider, with rival and ART team-mate Charles Leclerc back in fifth
The four points Albon scored for pole brought him to within 25 of Leclerc with 44 available from the weekend's two races.
It also ended Ferrari junior Antonio Fuoco's championship hopes - as the Italian needed pole to keep his mathematical chance alive.
Instead Trident driver Fuoco proved off the pace throughout qualifying, only briefly breaking into the top 10 and ending up 11th.
Albon and Leclerc's team-mate Nyck de Vries had held provisional pole with a 1m55.991s after the first runs, but he was pushed back to fourth in the final shootout.
Jake Dennis was first to nip ahead, before Albon produced a 1m55.274s to beat the Arden driver by 0.240 seconds.
Dennis's team-mate Jack Aitken then slotted in third.
As his main rivals pitted, Leclerc stayed out to try to squeeze more life out of his tyres in a final pole bid.
He started well with a new benchmark in the first sector, then fell away and failed to improve overall.
Leclerc's fellow Haas Formula 1 test driver Santino Ferrucci produced his best GP3 qualifying performance so far to join him on row three.
Ferrucci's Hockenheim race winning DAMS team-mate Jake Hughes ended up down in 20th after an unusual incident when he was sent out of the pits with a blower device still attached to his car.
A consequent unsafe release penalty means Hughes will have to start from the pitlane.
QUALIFYING TIMES:
Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Alexander Albon | ART Grand Prix | 1m55.274s | - |
2 | Jake Dennis | Arden International | 1m55.514s | 0.240s |
3 | Jack Aitken | Arden International | 1m55.604s | 0.330s |
4 | Nyck de Vries | ART Grand Prix | 1m55.629s | 0.355s |
5 | Charles Leclerc | ART Grand Prix | 1m55.660s | 0.386s |
6 | Santino Ferrucci | DAMS | 1m55.678s | 0.404s |
7 | Arjun Maini | Jenzer Motorsport | 1m55.683s | 0.409s |
8 | Kevin Jorg | DAMS | 1m55.892s | 0.618s |
9 | Steijn Schothorst | Campos Racing | 1m55.981s | 0.707s |
10 | Nirei Fukuzumi | ART Grand Prix | 1m56.094s | 0.820s |
11 | Antonio Fuoco | Trident | 1m56.145s | 0.871s |
12 | Artur Janosz | Trident | 1m56.154s | 0.880s |
13 | Alex Palou | Campos Racing | 1m56.155s | 0.881s |
14 | Matt Parry | Koiranen GP | 1m56.256s | 0.982s |
15 | Giuliano Alesi | Trident | 1m56.361s | 1.087s |
16 | Konstantin Tereschenko | Campos Racing | 1m56.563s | 1.289s |
17 | Sandy Stuvik | Trident | 1m56.570s | 1.296s |
18 | Tatiana Calderon | Arden International | 1m56.729s | 1.455s |
19 | Akash Nandy | Jenzer Motorsport | 1m56.732s | 1.458s |
20 | Jake Hughes | DAMS | 1m56.995s | 1.721s |
21 | Matevos Isaakyan | Koiranen GP | 1m57.513s | 2.239s |
22 | Alessio Lorandi | Jenzer Motorsport | - | - |
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