F3 Bahrain: Mini secures pole on debut ahead of Bortoleto

The Alpine Academy driver set a 1m47.055s two minutes from the end of the session which no other drivers were able to better.

Mini, who finished second in Formula Regional European championship last season, moved to the top of the times early during the 30-minute qualifying session ahead of series returnee Pepe Marti (Campos Racing).

At the halfway mark, the Frenchman was the only driver to set a sub 1m48s time, and improved on his second attempt to recapture provisional pole before again bettering his time to take the top spot.

Despite a risky early final run while others behind him improved on their times, Mini had done enough to secure pole on his debut.

He led the session ahead of Trident’s Gabriel Bortoleto, who topped practice earlier in the day, and Gregoire Saucy, who continues for his second season in F3 with ART Grand Prix.

Mini was one of 19 rookies driving in the session, and led from early on at Sakhir.

He was briefly toppled by Bortoleto, before his first time was deleted, and despite a difficult second run managed to retain the top spot.

Gregoire Saucy, ART Grand Prix

Photo by: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Fellow Hitech driver Sebastian Montoya slotted into second, with Taylor Barnard in third for Jenzer Motorsport.

Zak O’Sullivan was next to take the lead for Prema Racing, having joined the Italian outfit from Carlin this year, before Caio Collet (Van Amersfoort Racing) took the top spot.

Third-year driver Collet was quickly demoted once again by Mini, who set a 1m47.118s benchmark while Montoya returned to second.

Mini then improved again to a 1m47.055s before returning to the pits while the rest of the field set their final laps.

Saucy came very close to his best time with two minutes remaining, as did Bortoleto with a 1m47.112s, but Mini retained the top spot for his debut pole.

Reigning Euroformula Open champion Oliver Goethe will line up fourth for Campos Racing, with team-mate and fellow rookie Hugh Barter in fifth.

Kaylen Frederick, who joins ART from Carlin for his second F3 season, will start Sunday’s race from sixth, with Trident’s Leonardo Fornaroli in seventh place, with the Prema trio of Dino Beganovic, Paul Aron and O’Sullivan rounding off the top 10.

Marti will start on reverse-grid pole for Saturday’s sprint race ahead of Collet.

F3 Bahrain - Qualifying results

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval
1	Gabriele Minì	Hitech Pulse-Eight	11	1'47.055
2	Gabriel Bortoleto	Trident	12	1'47.112	0.057	0.057
3	Gregoire Saucy	ART Grand Prix	10	1'47.166	0.111	0.054
4	Oliver Goethe	Trident	12	1'47.190	0.135	0.024
5	Hugh Barter	Campos Racing	12	1'47.274	0.219	0.084
6	Kaylen Frederick	ART Grand Prix	11	1'47.283	0.228	0.009
7	Leonardo Fornaroli	Trident	12	1'47.290	0.235	0.007
8	Dino Beganovic	Prema Powerteam	11	1'47.320	0.265	0.030
9	Paul Aron	Prema Powerteam	11	1'47.322	0.267	0.002
10	Zak O'Sullivan	Prema Powerteam	11	1'47.344	0.289	0.022
11	Caio Collet	Van Amersfoort Racing	12	1'47.371	0.316	0.027
12	Pepe Martí	Campos Racing	12	1'47.391	0.336	0.020
13	Franco Colapinto	MP Motorsport	12	1'47.398	0.343	0.007
14	Christian Mansell	Campos Racing	12	1'47.451	0.396	0.053
15	Sebastian Montoya	Hitech Pulse-Eight	12	1'47.476	0.421	0.025
16	Jonny Edgar	MP Motorsport	12	1'47.535	0.480	0.059
17	Nikola Tsolov	ART Grand Prix	10	1'47.593	0.538	0.058
18	Luke Browning	Hitech Pulse-Eight	12	1'47.694	0.639	0.101
19	Mari Boya	MP Motorsport	12	1'47.885	0.830	0.191
20	Rafael Villagomez	Van Amersfoort Racing	13	1'47.950	0.895	0.065
21	Oliver Gray	Rodin Carlin	12	1'48.200	1.145	0.250
22	Nikita Bedrin	Jenzer Motorsport	12	1'48.203	1.148	0.003
23	Piotr Wiśnicki	PHM Racing by Charouz	11	1'48.515	1.460	0.312
24	Sophia Flörsch	PHM Racing by Charouz	11	1'48.659	1.604	0.144
25	Ido Cohen	Rodin Carlin	12	1'48.665	1.610	0.006
26	Hunter Yeany	Rodin Carlin	12	1'48.685	1.630	0.020
27	Tommy Smith	Van Amersfoort Racing	11	1'48.687	1.632	0.002
28	Alex Garcia	Jenzer Motorsport	11	1'49.184	2.129	0.497
29	Roberto Faria	PHM Racing by Charouz	11	1'49.465	2.410	0.281
30	Taylor Barnard	Jenzer Motorsport	11	2'01.193	14.138	11.728
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