Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Misano European F3: Vips pips Armstrong in wet second qualifying

Juri Vips put in a stunning performance to top a wet second qualifying for the Misano round of the Formula 3 European Championship

The session began amid thunder and lightning and heavy rain, but times tumbled throughout.

Although Vips only pipped Marcus Armstrong to the top of the times by 0.065 seconds, the Motopark Dallara-Volkswagen ace was quickest by more than one second of those who didn't flagrantly abuse track limits at the ultra-fast Turn 13 kink.

But Vips was denied a double pole by encountering Keyvan Andres, who himself was doing his best to improve his laptimes, late in the session - exactly as happened in Q2 at the previous round at Silverstone - and will start the final race from third.

"I was fastest the whole session," said Vips, who at one point held an advantage of almost 1s.

"It should have been a double pole but it wasn't - if he's five seconds a lap slower than me he should have let me by.

"But even with such a messy session traffic-wise I still got a pole - that's good, because Prema [which took a 1-2-3-4 in Q1 and the first race] are dominant here in the dry and we can't match them."

As well as taking second on the grid for race two, Armstrong's second-best time gave him pole for race three, 0.326s ahead of Prema Powerteam stablemate Ralf Aron.

"Wagon is fast - full stop," summed up the Kiwi.

"My radio wasn't working - I couldn't hear what he [engineer Jean-Francois Levere] was saying, and I thought, 'Let's just go.' It was brilliant. No tech involved - perfect!"

Armstrong, most of his Prema team-mates (except Robert Shwartzman), Dan Ticktum, Ferdinand Habsburg and, to a lesser extent, the Hitech GP trio were all taking huge liberties with the Turn 13 run-off.

"It's logic," explained Armstrong.

"They said they would look at Turn 6, Turn 8 and the inside of Turn 2, and it was, 'OK, I might as well go there.' It was a case of send it."

Aron was fourth fastest overall behind another Prema driver, Mick Schumacher, who drops to eighth on the grid for race three.

Carlin racer Habsburg took fifth for both Sunday's races, with Hitech's Alex Palou sixth overall (10th for race three) and Jehan Daruvala taking seventh and ninth in his Carlin car - like Vips, the Indian stayed within the track margins at Turn 13.

Prema's Guan Yu Zhou was eighth, but moves up to fourth for race three, while Ticktum put his Motopark car ninth, although he improves to seventh for the finale.

The other two Hitech drivers both earned a single top-10 grid slot for Sunday, with Ben Hingeley 10th for race two, and Enaam Ahmed sixth for race three.

Race two qualifying

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap
1 Juri Vips Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m46.004s -
2 Marcus Armstrong PREMA Theodore Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m46.069s 0.065s
3 Mick Schumacher PREMA Theodore Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m46.170s 0.166s
4 Ralf Aron PREMA Theodore Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m46.520s 0.516s
5 Ferdinand Habsburg Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m47.007s 1.003s
6 Alex Palou Hitech Bullfrog GP Dallara/Mercedes 1m47.095s 1.091s
7 Jehan Daruvala Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m47.106s 1.102s
8 Guanyu Zhou PREMA Theodore Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m47.187s 1.183s
9 Dan Ticktum Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m47.354s 1.350s
10 Ben Hingeley Hitech Bullfrog GP Dallara/Mercedes 1m47.401s 1.397s
11 Enaam Ahmed Hitech Bullfrog GP Dallara/Mercedes 1m47.440s 1.436s
12 Sebastian Fernandez Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m47.619s 1.615s
13 Jonathan Aberdein Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m48.254s 2.250s
14 Sacha Fenestraz Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m48.256s 2.252s
15 Robert Shwartzman PREMA Theodore Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m48.458s 2.454s
16 Marino Sato Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m48.864s 2.860s
17 Fabio Scherer Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m49.094s 3.090s
18 Artem Petrov Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m49.303s 3.299s
19 Sophia Florsch Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m49.686s 3.682s
20 Nikita Troitskiy Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m49.874s 3.870s
21 Keyvan Andres Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m49.956s 3.952s
22 Ameya Vaidyanathan Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m51.580s 5.576s

Race three qualifying

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap
1 Marcus Armstrong PREMA Theodore Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m46.214s -
2 Ralf Aron PREMA Theodore Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m46.540s 0.326s
3 Juri Vips Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m47.291s 1.077s
4 Guanyu Zhou PREMA Theodore Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m47.309s 1.095s
5 Ferdinand Habsburg Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m47.314s 1.100s
6 Enaam Ahmed Hitech Bullfrog GP Dallara/Mercedes 1m47.465s 1.251s
7 Dan Ticktum Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m47.595s 1.381s
8 Mick Schumacher PREMA Theodore Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m47.688s 1.474s
9 Jehan Daruvala Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m47.898s 1.684s
10 Alex Palou Hitech Bullfrog GP Dallara/Mercedes 1m47.915s 1.701s
11 Sebastian Fernandez Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m48.025s 1.811s
12 Sacha Fenestraz Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m48.260s 2.046s
13 Jonathan Aberdein Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m48.317s 2.103s
14 Ben Hingeley Hitech Bullfrog GP Dallara/Mercedes 1m48.451s 2.237s
15 Marino Sato Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m48.932s 2.718s
16 Robert Shwartzman PREMA Theodore Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m49.244s 3.030s
17 Artem Petrov Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m49.445s 3.231s
18 Fabio Scherer Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m49.520s 3.306s
19 Sophia Florsch Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m49.990s 3.776s
20 Keyvan Andres Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m50.069s 3.855s
21 Nikita Troitskiy Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m50.422s 4.208s
22 Ameya Vaidyanathan Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m52.497s 6.283s


Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Misano European F3: Schumacher dominates opening race
Next article GP3 Spa: Mazepin wins race two from Hubert to head ART 1-2-3-4

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe