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GP3 Spa: Beckmann seals first pole in tight qualifying session

David Beckmann secured his first ever GP3 Series pole position and Trident Racing's first of 2018 at Spa, with the top 17 separated by under a second

Beckmann switched to Trident from Jenzer at the previous round at the Hungaroring, and the German's performance instantly improved.

He topped practice in Hungary and repeated that feat in Belgium, before following up his fastest time in qualifying.

With Pirelli's tyres capable of doing multiple laps, the order was extremely fluid, but Beckmann topped the times on the penultimate run.

As the four ART Grand Prix cars and Beckmann's three Trident team-mates all attempted to improve, only Piquet (Trident) could lower his time before Beckmann took shaved another tenth of a second from his best to assure his place at the top of the order.

Championship leader and ART driver Anthoine Hubert took second ahead of Piquet, while Hubert's team-mates Jake Hughes and Nikita Mazepin rounded out the top five.

Callum Ilott, Hubert's closest challenger in the points, could only manage sixth in his ART-run car, while Simo Laaksonen took his best qualifying result of the season, the Campos driver securing seventh ahead of a pair of Tridents.

Ryan Tveter had to settle for eighth when he failed to improve on his final run, while Giuliano Alesi's last time would have put him in the top five but it was disallowed for track limits.

Joey Mawson rounded out the top 10 for Arden. Another title contender, Leonardo Pulcini, had a difficult session and only managed 12th in the order.

On his debut with the team, MP Motorsport's Richard Verschoor took 15th, ahead of both of his team-mates Niko Kari (17th) and Devlin DeFrancesco (19th).

Qualifying times

Pos Driver Team Time Gap
1 David Beckmann Trident 2m04.335s -
2 Anthoine Hubert ART Grand Prix 2m04.479s 0.144s
3 Pedro Piquet Trident 2m04.529s 0.194s
4 Jake Hughes ART Grand Prix 2m04.530s 0.195s
5 Nikita Mazepin ART Grand Prix 2m04.538s 0.203s
6 Callum Ilott ART Grand Prix 2m04.549s 0.214s
7 Simo Laaksonen Campos Racing 2m04.633s 0.298s
8 Ryan Tveter Trident 2m04.677s 0.342s
9 Giuliano Alesi Trident 2m04.685s 0.350s
10 Joey Mawson Arden International 2m04.712s 0.377s
11 Tatiana Calderon Jenzer Motorsport 2m04.804s 0.469s
12 Leonardo Pulcini Campos Racing 2m04.945s 0.610s
13 Juan Manuel Correa Jenzer Motorsport 2m05.068s 0.733s
14 Gabriel Aubry Arden International 2m05.135s 0.800s
15 Richard Verschoor MP Motorsport 2m05.269s 0.934s
16 Julien Falchero Arden International 2m05.278s 0.943s
17 Niko Kari MP Motorsport 2m05.296s 0.961s
18 Diego Menchaca Campos Racing 2m05.782s 1.447s
19 Devlin Defrancesco MP Motorsport 2m05.974s 1.639s
20 Jannes Fittje Jenzer Motorsport 2m06.036s 1.701s

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