Doohan, Martins and Smolyar gave their thoughts on what they can take from the wet qualifying into the three potential wet races at Spa-Francorchamps

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The trio of Jack Doohan, Victor Martins and Aleksandr Smolyar qualified first, second and third respectively ahead of Sunday’s race three.

Rain is still forecasted at Spa-Francorchamps for the entirety of Saturday and Sunday and the three drivers gave their thoughts and feelings on what they may be able to transfer from qualifying into the three races this weekend.

Pole-sitter Jack Doohan answered the question first as the Australian gave his thoughts on what could be a hectic weekend of racing.

“We have to take into consideration, especially today, that it did rain but it didn’t rain for long and it started to dry out similarly to practice where we only saw a few spots of rain.

“It’s going to be important to manage the conditions well and know where to push and when to push, because tomorrow if it is drying conditions and you are pushing too much at the start, then you won’t have much left for the rest of the race unless it rains for the whole duration of the race.”

Alpine Academy driver Victor Martins spoke about not wanting to predict anything and taking the conditions head-on.

“I think we will see when we are on the track to be completely honest similar to what we did today by adapting to the conditions. We saw that it was changing quite a lot with the different lines on the track.

“It is a matter of how you push at the beginning and how you survive at the end but it is best to not predict anything and just go out there and give it your all because you don’t know whether it will be a wet track or a drying one like we saw in quali.”

Finally, ART Grand Prix’s Aleksandr Smolyar said how he’d ‘prefer it to be fully wet or fully dry’ due to the unpredictability of wet conditions with a drying track.

“I feel ready for the dry race, and even though it says it will rain for the next two days, I still think that all three races could be done in the dry.

“Obviously, it depends on the conditions. I prefer it to be fully wet or fully dry because like Jack [Doohan] said if you are on wet tyres on a drying track, you fighting less with the drivers but more with yourself and the tyres and car underneath you.”

The trio will lineup for tomorrow’s race one in 12th, 11th and 10th as Lorenzo Colombo starts from reverse grid pole position after qualifying 12th for Sunday’s race three.

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