Dennis Hauger takes pole at the Red Bull Ring in Formula 3’s hectic qualifying session

Championship leader Dennis Hauger took pole in a very hectic qualifying session. The Norweigan will start ahead of Frederik Vesti and Aleksandr Smolyar in Sunday’s Feature Race.

As It Happened

First out on track were Clement Novalak, David Schumacher and Jak Crawford. Meanwhile, the Campos drivers were held back in the pits whilst the pack squabbled for track space.

The first banker times were set with 25 minutes to go, Juan Manuel Correa topped the timesheets before a flurry of more early times were set.

The drivers continued to battle for track position as Lazlo Toth jumped up to the top of the timing sheets, close to two seconds ahead of Rafael Villagomez.

Moments later, Ayumu Iwasa snatched the top spot away from the Hungarian with a 1:20.704 as the time continued to clock down in the session.

As the drivers had some clearer track space, a batch of more competitive times were set. Logan Sargeant bettered Iwasa’s time before Jack Doohan, Smolyar and Vesti all set quicker times.

After a few quick cooldown laps, some drivers decided to set more flying laps as the track was getting faster. Unfortunately, no one was able to knock Vesti off provisional pole, however, Dennis Hauger managed to get himself up to fifth.

At the halfway point of the session, all cars returned to the pits for a fresh set of tyres with Vesti, Crawford, Sargeant, Doohan and Hauger making up the top five.

With just over 10 minutes on the clock, the field set out for their second run.

At the end of his out lap, Ido Cohen came to a halt on the main straight which bought out the red flag with eight minutes remaining.

Once Cohen’s stationary car was cleared, action resumed with most cars returning to the track as drivers continued to fight over track position.

With just over three minutes to go, Hauger set a blistering 1:20.085 which moved the Norweigan to first.

His time wouldn’t top the timesheets for long, as he was soon demoted down to fourth as a mass of late times were set which saw three more provisional pole sitters.

The flag dropped as Hauger crossed the line to clinch pole, 17-thousandths of a second ahead of Vesti.

Ciao Collet set a quicker lap, however, the Brazilian’s time was chalked off due to the MP Motorsport driver leaving the track at turn 10.

In the end, it was Hauger who clinched pole for Sunday’s Feature Race ahead of Vesti and Smolyar who qualified second and third respectively. Rounding out the top 10 was Collet, Crawford, Novalak, Doohan, Caldwell, Arthur Leclerc and Victor Martins in 10th.

On pole position for Saturday’s race one will be Logan Sargeant after the American qualified 12th ahead of Matteo Nannini who’ll line up in second.

Quotes from the drivers

When questioned on the traffic during qualifying, Dennis Hauger mentioned how placing yourself well is as important as nailing the lap itself:

“It’s one of the shorter laps on the calendar which makes it really important to nail everything and makes the whole field really close.

“It’s mainly about nailing the tow as well as nailing all the corners because there’s not a lot, but you really have to focus on all of them to make the difference here.”

Frederik Vesti and Aleksandr Smolyar were asked about the trickiness of turn one.

Vesti said:

“It’s going to be close, turn one is always close at any track really. Especially starting P11, things can happen ahead and behind. We’ve just got to do the best job possible and get a good exit out of turn one.”

Smolyar added:

“Turn one is very tight here, also most of the time if you’re on the outside on entry, you don’t have enough space, so you have to jump on the awkward sausage kerb and go around the outside.

“Obviously, I don’t have a plan now, it’s always a bit messy, you just have to react to the situation and see how it goes.”

What’s next?

The first Formula 3 race of the weekend gets underway on Saturday morning as Logan Sargeant will line up on pole position ahead of Matteo Nannini before an exhilarating 24-lap Sprint Race at the Red Bull Ring.

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