Doohan clinches a crucial pole position ahead of Sunday’s race three in Sochi Showdown at F3’s Russian Grand Prix

The Aussie took pole around the Sochi Autodrom, ahead of his Trident teammate Clement Novalak and crucially chips away four points from Dennis Hauger’s championship lead heading into the final three races of the season.

Doohan will start race one from 12th but will line up at the start of race three with a clear view of turn one as he aims to dethrone Hauger at the death.

As It Happened

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The first drivers to take to the track was the Trident trio, Doohan, Novalak and David Schumacher.

A lot of drivers held back to secure track position, which saw a lot of squabbling throughout the preparation laps.

An early flurry of times were set soon after with Hauger and Doohan both in the 1:56’s as Ciao Collet set a new provisional pole time with a 1:55.131 which was over eight-tenths quicker than Arthur Leclerc in second.

Meanwhile, Jonny Edgar lost control of his Carlin Buzz car and ended his session in the barrier on the outside of turn 14 which bought out the red flag with 22 minutes of the session remaining.

Seven minutes later, the session resumed as all the cars came back onto the Sochi Autodrom.

With just over 18 minutes remaining, Doohan leapfrogged Collet’s time by two-tenths with an impressive 1:54.927.

Although he improved again through sector one, Doohan backed out of his lap to pit and fit another set of the hard compound tyres as he was followed by the rest of the F3 pack.

11 minutes remained with the four pole points heading to Doohan as the cars set out for their final qualifying runs.

Matteo Nannini set the first time of the final run and went sixth, his time was just under five-tenths slower than Doohan’s pole time.

A number of late times were set as Hauger got up to fourth, and Frederik Vesti momentarily topped the session before his provisional pole was snatched away by Doohan. Hauger meanwhile, fell to 10th as the top three of Doohan, Johnathan Hoggard and Vesti were split by less than a tenth of a second.

Under a minute remained as the drivers flew round the final sector. Novalak’s strong sector three saw him set a 1:54.648, three-hundredths of a second ahead of his teammate Doohan, pipping him of pole.

In the end, it was Doohan who took pole for Sunday’s race three ahead of his teammate Novalak, who had his chart-topping time deleted and Hoggard in third, with the championship leader Hauger qualifying in ninth after his best lap time was also deleted.

What’s Next?

MP Motorsport’s Victor Martins will start Friday’s rescheduled race one on pole position as he was 12th quickest in quaifying, ahead of Logan Sergeant on the front row of the grid. Row two will be occupied by Hitech’s Jak Crawford and championship leader Hauger.

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