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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