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Lundgaard takes pole after bizarre scenes in Monza F3 qualifying

Renault junior Christian Lundgaard took pole position in a farcical FIA Formula 3 session at Monza where drivers fought for track position and ruined each other's laps

With less than five minutes to go, over 20 cars were on the back straight before the Parabolica.

Some were attempting to finish flying laps at speed while some were running slowly on the racing line, held up by cars ahead starting their next lap.

It created an incredibly dangerous situation with high closing speeds form cars on flying laps versus those prepping to start the next tour.

A red flag was called with less than four minutes to seemingly the farcical on track conditions, as there was no obvious crash or other incident on track to trigger it.

The reason for the red flag was not made public immediately.

That handed Lundgaard the pole position - the first repeat polesitter of the F3 season - as he and his fellow Renault juniors run a special tribute sticker for their fallen colleague Anthoine Hubert, who passed away after a crash in Formula 2 at Spa last week.

Ferrari junior Marcus Armstrong - winner last time out at Spa - took second, heading his Prema Racing team-mates Robert Shwartzman and Jehan Daruvala.

SMP Racing and Ferrari junior Shwartzman was well outside of the top 20 until the last 15 minutes, where he jumped up the order and starts from a position where he could extend his points' lead over Daruvala on the series' penultimate weekend of the year.

Reigning German F4 champion Lirim Zendeli was one of very few drivers who got some track space and the Sauber Junior Team driver delivered his best qualifying lap of the year in fifth, while Carlin's Teppei Natori in sixth also managed his best grid start.

Lundgaard's fellow Renault junior and ART Grand Prix team-mate Max Fewtrell took seventh ahead of MP Motorsport's Richard Verschoor.

Niko Kari earned ninth for Trident Racing, with Giorgio Carrara rounding out the top 10.

Big losers included Spa race one winner Pedro Piquet, who had to abort a lap which included fastest first and second sectors after a mistake in the third.

HWA's Jake Hughes had held provisional pole but the red flag meant he couldn't improve on his 12th place.

Championship contender Juri Vips was also robbed of the chance to best his own time and will have to start from 15th as his title hopes slip away.

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 Christian Lundgaard ART Grand Prix Dallara/Mecachrome 1m38.834s - 12
2 Marcus Armstrong Prema Racing Dallara/Mecachrome 1m38.969s 0.135s 11
3 Robert Shwartzman Prema Racing Dallara/Mecachrome 1m39.037s 0.203s 11
4 Jehan Daruvala Prema Racing Dallara/Mecachrome 1m39.055s 0.221s 11
5 Lirim Zendeli Charouz Dallara/Mecachrome 1m39.177s 0.343s 11
6 Teppei Natori Carlin Dallara/Mecachrome 1m39.303s 0.469s 12
7 Max Fewtrell ART Grand Prix Dallara/Mecachrome 1m39.307s 0.473s 12
8 Richard Verschoor MP Motorsport Dallara/Mecachrome 1m39.312s 0.478s 11
9 Niko Kari Trident Dallara/Mecachrome 1m39.343s 0.509s 11
10 Giorgio Carrara Jenzer Motorsport Dallara/Mecachrome 1m39.344s 0.510s 11
11 Yuki Tsunoda Jenzer Motorsport Dallara/Mecachrome 1m39.437s 0.603s 11
12 Jake Hughes HWA Dallara/Mecachrome 1m39.444s 0.610s 10
13 Liam Lawson MP Motorsport Dallara/Mecachrome 1m39.505s 0.671s 12
14 Pedro Piquet Trident Dallara/Mecachrome 1m39.511s 0.677s 9
15 Juri Vips Hitech GP Dallara/Mecachrome 1m39.645s 0.811s 11
16 Logan Sargeant Carlin Dallara/Mecachrome 1m39.717s 0.883s 11
17 David Beckmann ART Grand Prix Dallara/Mecachrome 1m39.788s 0.954s 12
18 Alex Peroni Campos Racing Dallara/Mecachrome 1m39.830s 0.996s 11
19 Simo Laaksonen MP Motorsport Dallara/Mecachrome 1m40.068s 1.234s 11
20 Keyvan Andres HWA Dallara/Mecachrome 1m40.084s 1.250s 9
21 Bent Viscaal HWA Dallara/Mecachrome 1m40.097s 1.263s 10
22 Leonardo Pulcini Hitech GP Dallara/Mecachrome 1m40.108s 1.274s 11
23 Devlin Defrancesco Trident Dallara/Mecachrome 1m40.114s 1.280s 10
24 Sebastian Fernandez Campos Racing Dallara/Mecachrome 1m40.190s 1.356s 11
25 Fabio Scherer Charouz Dallara/Mecachrome 1m40.258s 1.424s 11
26 Felipe Drugovich Carlin Dallara/Mecachrome 1m40.370s 1.536s 9
27 Yifei Ye Hitech GP Dallara/Mecachrome 1m40.639s 1.805s 10
28 Raoul Hyman Charouz Dallara/Mecachrome 1m41.052s 2.218s 10
29 Alessio Deledda Campos Racing Dallara/Mecachrome 1m41.161s 2.327s 11
30 Andreas Estner Jenzer Motorsport Dallara/Mecachrome 1m42.031s 3.197s 11

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