France F3: Vesti beats Hauger to pole position at Paul Ricard

The Mercedes junior went quickest with a 1m50.882s with less than five minutes left of the 30-minute qualifying session, almost two-tenths clear of Hauger, who made a minor error on his last lap while attempting to take back pole.

MP Motorsport’s Victor Martins came in third, with Trident’s Jack Doohan in fourth and Ciao Collet in fifth and Clement Novalak in sixth.

Doohan was out on track first, leading the 30-strong pack around a very bunched up first lap.

ART Grand Prix’s Juan Manuel Correa managed to find space to take the first flying lap, but went wide and had to take the run off on the way down to Turn 3, forcing him round the bollards to return to the track the long way round. This caused a yellow flag as a large portion of the field were about to start their first fast laps.

His team-mate Alexander Smolyar was the first to set a fast lap, with a 1m52.393s, before Vesti set a 1m52.395s.

But they were the only two drivers to set fast laps before there was a red flag eight minutes into the session after Prema Racing’s Arthur Leclerc came to a halt on the circuit with a locked front left wheel.

The disappointed Ferrari junior driver was unable to get the car going again and was pushed off the track by the marshals, ending his qualifying before he was able to set a time.

The lights went green with 22 minutes to go, with the times then tumbling, with Hauger, Collet, Martins and Doohan all quickly breaking into the 1m51s.

By halfway through the session, the top 15 was separated by just one second.

This session sets the grid for Sunday’s feature race, while for Saturday’s sprint race, the top 12 will be reversed.

This will see Jenzer Motorsport’s Calan Williams start on pole tomorrow, with Trident’s David Schumacher in second and Charouz Racing System’s Logan Sargeant in third.

Correa, who was confirmed today to be rejoining the Sauber Academy, will start fourth, with Hitech Grand Prix’s Ayuma Iwasa in fifth.

France F3 - Qualifying results

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Frederik Vesti	ART Grand Prix	13	1'50.882
2	Dennis Hauger	Prema Powerteam	12	1'51.063	0.181
3	Victor Martins	MP Motorsport	12	1'51.122	0.240
4	Jack Doohan	Trident	12	1'51.165	0.283
5	Caio Collet	MP Motorsport	12	1'51.187	0.305
6	Clement Novalak	Trident	13	1'51.213	0.331
7	Alexander Smolyar	ART Grand Prix	13	1'51.269	0.387
8	Ayumu Iwasa	HitechGP	12	1'51.484	0.602
9	Juan Manuel Correa	ART Grand Prix	12	1'51.503	0.621
10	Logan Sargeant	Charouz Racing System	13	1'51.525	0.643
11	David Schumacher	Trident	11	1'51.550	0.668
12	Calan Williams	Jenzer Motorsport	12	1'51.575	0.693
13	Matteo Nannini	HWA AG	12	1'51.613	0.731
14	Olli Caldwell	Prema Powerteam	12	1'51.648	0.766
15	Tijmen van	MP Motorsport	13	1'51.669	0.787
16	Jak Crawford	HitechGP	12	1'51.718	0.836
17	Roman Staněk	HitechGP	12	1'51.772	0.890
18	Lorenzo Colombo	Campos Racing	14	1'51.809	0.927
19	Amaury Cordeel	Campos Racing	14	1'51.929	1.047
20	Johnathan Hoggard	Jenzer Motorsport	12	1'52.051	1.169
21	Enzo Fittipaldi	Charouz Racing System	12	1'52.334	1.452
22	Kaylen Frederick	Carlin	13	1'52.453	1.571
23	Jonny Edgar	Carlin	13	1'52.453	1.571
24	Oliver Rasmussen	HWA AG	12	1'52.475	1.593
25	Pierre-Louis Chovet	Campos Racing	13	1'52.564	1.682
26	Reshad de	Charouz Racing System	13	1'52.795	1.913
27	Filip Ugran	Jenzer Motorsport	12	1'52.823	1.941
28	Rafael Villagómez	HWA AG	12	1'52.946	2.064
29	Ido Cohen	Carlin	13	1'53.023	2.141
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