Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Qualifying: Wirdheim on pole

The sun came out to greet the F3000 drivers in Monaco as they revved up for qualifying for Round Four of the international championship. Swede Bjorn Wirdheim took pole for Arden International, the only driver to get below the 1m26s mark

Ricardo Sperafico came back from two spins in practice to put his Coloni Motorsport car on the front row as well, with Durango's Giorgio Pantano snapping at his heels, just 0.1s behind, in third.

The new Red Bull Junior Team had a result when rookie driver Vitantonio Luizzi beat the Super Nova of Enrico Toccacelo into fourth. The young Italian was well pleased with his efforts on his first time out in Monte Carlo. Nicolas Kiesa finally managed a clear run, after getting caught up in traffic for much of the session, to take sixth for Den Bla Avis.

Team-mate Phil Giebler managed to get just a handful of laps in before bending his car at the Swimming Pool, while the second Arden of Townsend Bell crashed out at the same place on his first flying lap - thus finishing at the bottom of the times.

Alessandro Piccolo and Rob Nguyen's replacement Will Langhorne, of the troubled Spanish BCN F3000 team, also befriended the Armco. Langhorne followed Bell and Giebler off at the Swimming Pool, while Piccolo made a large dent in Casino Square. It was quite a big accident and stopped the session with only a minute to go, it was not restarted.

Team Astromega's Tony Schmidt looked like missing the session entirely, after his smash in practice (also at the Swimming Pool), but the team squeezed him out onto the track in the last seven minutes to qualify sixteenth. Belgian team-mate Jeffrey van Hooydonk was seventh.

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article A1-Ring: Sperafico all the way
Next article Race: Wirdheim gaffe hands win to Kiesa

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe