Lirim Zendeli Takes Final F3 Pole of the Season as penalised Oscar Piastri will start 16th

Credit: F3

Lirim Zendeli took the final pole position of the Formula 3 season as championship leader Oscar Piastri struggled and will start 16th.

The Trident driver went fastest of all late in the session amid a flurry of on track improvements to take pole position.

Championship-chasing Logan Sargeant battled oversteer problems but still qualified second – albeit with a three-place grid penalty.

This contrasted the speed of his championship rival – Piastri – the Australian struggled to 11th and will start 16th after a grid penalty of his own.

Jake Hughes was third for HWA Racelab – as he failed to usurp Zendeli and Sargeant at the session’s death.

Frederik Vesti was fourth after he recovered from a moment where he touched the gravel to keep his slim championship hopes alive.

Behind him was the second HWA of Enzo Fittipaldi – as the Brazilian took his best qualifying session of the season.

He led ART duo of Sebastian Fernandez and Theo Pourchaire in sixth and seventh respectively.

Eighth was David Beckmann – who will be disappointed not to match team-mate Zendeli’s super form, while Dennis Hauger was the lead Hitech as Liam Lawson struggled.

The championship-chasing New Zealander went deep into the gravel and could only recover to a lowly 13th in his final run.

Alex Smolyar rounded out the top ten in the third and final ART car.

The story of Qualifying

The initial flurry of runs saw Trident and Prema show good speed – with the two Italian squads enjoying home advantage.

David Beckmann was initially fastest of all, followed by team-mate Lirim Zendeli.

But the tyres held on for a second ‘hot-lap’ allowing practice-pacesetter Hughes to usurp the Beckmann.

The Prema trio completed the top five – as Sargeant led Vesti and Piastri.

The other title-contending duo – Pourchaire and Lawson – sat seventh and 13th respectively after the first runs.

The youngest driver in the field, Roman Stanek, took a trip through the gravel on his first run.

Before his second run, Vesti demanded a clean track to help prepare his tyres, and Prema obliged as the Danish driver led the snake of cars out of the pitlane.

But Vesti made an error on his run, clipping the gravel trap and losing some momentum.

But he still initially went quickest of all – only to be swiftly demoted as the times tumbled – leaving the Dane 11th.

Zendeli then went fastest of all – going quicker than Sargeant – who despite complaints of oversteer was second.

Championship leader Piastri was in trouble – only managing eleventh with a five-place penalty leaving him 16th on the grid.

The other Prema of Vesti battled back on his final run to finish the session in 4th

Further down the order, Lawson went wide to leave him 20th with only one shot left.

The Hitech driver battled hard but could only put it 13th in the final moments.

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