F3 Spa: Daruvala takes pole at Spa for Prema, ART has a disaster
Prema Racing's Jehan Daruvala became the sixth polesitter in as many rounds of the 2019 FIA Formula 3 Championship in a frenetic qualifying session at Spa
Trident Racing - which took pole and won with David Beckmann in the GP3 Series' final visit to Spa last season - looked dominant with Pedro Piquet and Devlin DeFrancesco sitting 0.3 seconds clear of the pack after the first bout of flying laps.
But with 30 cars laying down rubber and the track improving constantly as a result, a flurry of late laps mixed up the order in a session where most drivers could only extract one lap out of the tyres before they passed the prime operating window.
Daruvala left it late, but excelled in the tricky middle sector to go 0.231s quicker than Piquet and seal pole.
His effort could be key for his championship bid, as the four points for pole boosts his total in third position and means he is 16 off the lead.
F3 Red Bull-backed rookie Yuki Tsunoda, comfortably the most impressive of Honda's Formula 1-feeder series drivers in 2019 - despite driving for a Jenzer Motorsport team that is not considered among the top outfits - took third.
Championship leader Robert Shwartzman qualified fourth after the SMP Racing and Ferrari junior attempted to improve with a second lap on his last set of tyres but his move did not pay off.
Jake Hughes delivered fifth for HWA, while title contender and Red Bull junior Juri Vips sealed sixth for Hitech Grand Prix, ahead of the resurgent DeFrancesco.
The second Hitech-run car of Leonardo Pulcini - who won the second race at Silverstone last month - took ninth ahead of another Red Bull junior, Liam Lawson.
Max Fewtrell was the best ART Grand Prix-run driver in 12th after the single-seater juggernaut team had a nightmare session.
Christian Lundgaard - who won the first race at the last round in Hungary - was 14th, while Beckmann continued his disappointing season with 17th.
The third Prema-run car of Marcus Armstrong ended up way down the order in 19th, which will hurt his championship aspirations.
The Ferrari junior, who is currently fourth in the championship, decided to drop back in the running order for track position late-on, which meant he only had time for a single final lap run.
It proved to be the right call as few drivers improved on their second laps, but nailing the first lap was key and Armstrong ended up 1.2s off the best time with his sole effort.
Following qualifying, reigning German Formula 4 champion Lirim Zendeli was given a three-place grid drop for causing a collision with Campos Racing's Sebastian Fernandez.
Sauber Junior Team driver Zendeli qualified 29th, so he will start 30th.
Qualifying results
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Jehan Daruvala | Prema Racing | Dallara/Mecachrome | 2m05.125s | 11 |
2 | Pedro Piquet | Trident | Dallara/Mecachrome | 0.231s | 10 |
3 | Yuki Tsunoda | Jenzer Motorsport | Dallara/Mecachrome | 0.415s | 10 |
4 | Robert Shwartzman | Prema Racing | Dallara/Mecachrome | 0.480s | 11 |
5 | Jake Hughes | HWA | Dallara/Mecachrome | 0.489s | 10 |
6 | Juri Vips | Hitech GP | Dallara/Mecachrome | 0.500s | 11 |
7 | Devlin Defrancesco | Trident | Dallara/Mecachrome | 0.515s | 11 |
8 | Leonardo Pulcini | Hitech GP | Dallara/Mecachrome | 0.576s | 11 |
9 | Logan Sargeant | Carlin | Dallara/Mecachrome | 0.584s | 11 |
10 | Liam Lawson | MP Motorsport | Dallara/Mecachrome | 0.935s | 11 |
11 | Alex Peroni | Campos Racing | Dallara/Mecachrome | 1.062s | 10 |
12 | Max Fewtrell | ART Grand Prix | Dallara/Mecachrome | 1.082s | 11 |
13 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | Dallara/Mecachrome | 1.130s | 11 |
14 | Christian Lundgaard | ART Grand Prix | Dallara/Mecachrome | 1.145s | 11 |
15 | Yifei Ye | Hitech GP | Dallara/Mecachrome | 1.149s | 11 |
16 | Bent Viscaal | HWA | Dallara/Mecachrome | 1.164s | 10 |
17 | David Beckmann | ART Grand Prix | Dallara/Mecachrome | 1.208s | 10 |
18 | Giorgio Carrara | Jenzer Motorsport | Dallara/Mecachrome | 1.271s | 11 |
19 | Marcus Armstrong | Prema Racing | Dallara/Mecachrome | 1.275s | 10 |
20 | Teppei Natori | Carlin | Dallara/Mecachrome | 1.295s | 10 |
21 | Niko Kari | Trident | Dallara/Mecachrome | 1.350s | 11 |
22 | Keyvan Andres | HWA | Dallara/Mecachrome | 1.412s | 10 |
23 | Felipe Drugovich | Carlin | Dallara/Mecachrome | 1.481s | 10 |
24 | Raoul Hyman | Charouz | Dallara/Mecachrome | 1.489s | 10 |
25 | Sebastian Fernandez | Campos Racing | Dallara/Mecachrome | 2.126s | 10 |
26 | Andreas Estner | Jenzer Motorsport | Dallara/Mecachrome | 2.350s | 10 |
27 | Simo Laaksonen | MP Motorsport | Dallara/Mecachrome | 2.378s | 10 |
28 | Fabio Scherer | Charouz | Dallara/Mecachrome | 2.889s | 10 |
29 | Lirim Zendeli | Charouz | Dallara/Mecachrome | 2.951s | 9 |
30 | Alessio Deledda | Campos Racing | Dallara/Mecachrome | 3.773s | 10 |
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