Spa European F3: Felix Rosenqvist dodges rain to take race one pole
Felix Rosenqvist survived a rain scare to grab pole position for the first Formula 3 European Championship race of the Spa weekend
Rosenqvist - along with fellow title contenders Antonio Giovinazzi, Charles Leclerc and Jake Dennis - languished way down the order when rain fell, predominantly at the La Source hairpin, a few minutes into the session.
Red Bull junior Callum Ilott sat atop the timing screens for the majority of the session, but the 16-year-old Briton plummeted down the order to ninth when salvation appeared for the regular frontrunners and the track dried.
Rosenqvist found himself on such a large empty piece of track that he thought the session had been red-flagged, and took his Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes to pole position by 0.238 seconds from team-mate Dennis.
"It was really slippery and my engineer said I had to make a time - it was a 2m14s and pole was in the 2m11s," said the Swede.
"Then it stopped raining and I managed to do a really good lap."
Dennis gave credit to the Prema team, with his own effort outpacing third-fastest Giovinazzi's Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen by over half a second after the Italian jumped up the order in the dying moments.
Giovinazzi's late effort demoted Pietro Fittipaldi to fourth. The Brazilian-American, still driving with his broken left hand in a splint, briefly held pole on a track where his Fortec Motorsport team often excels, but hit traffic in the last couple of laps.
The latest improver among the leading runners was Brandon Maisano, the Prema man grabbing a last-ditch fifth from Leclerc, whose Van Amersfoort Racing machine was way down outside the top 30 until the last couple of minutes.
Alexander Albon (Signature) and Santino Ferrucci (Mucke Motorsport) will share the fourth row for the opening race, with Ilott and Motopark man Markus Pommer on the fifth, just shading Silverstone winner George Russell.
RACE ONE QUALIFYING:
| Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Felix Rosenqvist | Prema Powerteam | Dallara/Mercedes | 2m10.173s | - |
| 2 | Jake Dennis | Prema Powerteam | Dallara/Mercedes | 2m10.411s | 0.238s |
| 3 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Jagonya Ayam with Carlin | Dallara/Volkswagen | 2m10.964s | 0.791s |
| 4 | Pietro Fittipaldi | Fortec Motorsports | Dallara/Mercedes | 2m11.008s | 0.835s |
| 5 | Brandon Maisano | Prema Powerteam | Dallara/Mercedes | 2m11.112s | 0.939s |
| 6 | Charles Leclerc | Van Amersfoort Racing | Dallara/Volkswagen | 2m11.121s | 0.948s |
| 7 | Alexander Albon | Signature | Dallara/Volkswagen | 2m11.172s | 0.999s |
| 8 | Santino Ferrucci | KFZTeile24 Mucke Motorsport | Dallara/Mercedes | 2m11.224s | 1.051s |
| 9 | Callum Ilott | Carlin | Dallara/Volkswagen | 2m11.240s | 1.067s |
| 10 | Markus Pommer | Motopark | Dallara/Volkswagen | 2m11.244s | 1.071s |
| 11 | George Russell | Carlin | Dallara/Volkswagen | 2m11.297s | 1.124s |
| 12 | Mikkel Jensen | KFZTeile24 Mucke Motorsport | Dallara/Mercedes | 2m11.348s | 1.175s |
| 13 | Raoul Hyman | Team West-Tec F3 | Dallara/Mercedes | 2m11.370s | 1.197s |
| 14 | Lance Stroll | Prema Powerteam | Dallara/Mercedes | 2m11.397s | 1.224s |
| 15 | Sam MacLeod | Motopark | Dallara/Volkswagen | 2m11.459s | 1.286s |
| 16 | Alessio Lorandi | Van Amersfoort Racing | Dallara/Volkswagen | 2m11.465s | 1.292s |
| 17 | Ryan Tveter | Jagonya Ayam with Carlin | Dallara/Volkswagen | 2m11.547s | 1.374s |
| 18 | Maximilian Guenther | KFZTeile24 Mucke Motorsport | Dallara/Mercedes | 2m11.716s | 1.543s |
| 19 | Gustavo Menezes | Jagonya Ayam with Carlin | Dallara/Volkswagen | 2m11.742s | 1.569s |
| 20 | Sergio Sette Camara | Motopark | Dallara/Volkswagen | 2m11.802s | 1.629s |
| 21 | Fabian Schiller | Team West-Tec F3 | Dallara/Mercedes | 2m12.060s | 1.887s |
| 22 | Dorian Boccolacci | Signature | Dallara/Volkswagen | 2m12.103s | 1.930s |
| 23 | Tatiana Calderon | Carlin | Dallara/Volkswagen | 2m12.216s | 2.043s |
| 24 | Nabil Jeffri | Motopark | Dallara/Volkswagen | 2m12.394s | 2.221s |
| 25 | Michele Beretta | KFZTeile24 Mucke Motorsport | Dallara/Mercedes | 2m12.470s | 2.297s |
| 26 | Matt Solomon | Double R Racing | Dallara/Mercedes | 2m12.528s | 2.355s |
| 27 | Matt Rao | Fortec Motorsports | Dallara/Mercedes | 2m12.588s | 2.415s |
| 28 | Kang Ling | KFZTeile24 Mucke Motorsport | Dallara/Mercedes | 2m12.750s | 2.577s |
| 29 | Nicolas Pohler | Double R Racing | Dallara/Mercedes | 2m12.772s | 2.599s |
| 30 | Arjun Maini | Van Amersfoort Racing | Dallara/Volkswagen | 2m13.051s | 2.878s |
| 31 | Martin Cao | Fortec Motorsports | Dallara/Mercedes | 2m13.344s | 3.171s |
| 32 | Mahaveer Raghunathan | Motopark | Dallara/Volkswagen | 2m13.426s | 3.253s |
| 33 | Julio Moreno | ThreeBond with T-Sport | Dallara/NBE | 2m18.066s | 7.893s |
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