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Mercedes Junior Frederik Vesti pipped Championship leader Dennis Hauger to pole position in France while Victor Martins completed the top three ahead of his home Grand Prix.
The Danish driver went under the radar in the dying embers of qualifying as he snatched pole position away from Prema Racing’s Dennis Hauger. Frederik Vesti has claimed not only pole position but also four vital Championship points as he topped the timings at the end of qualifying.
Victor Martins made it back-to-back third places in qualifying ahead of the Feature Race on Sunday. Jack Doohan was relegated to fourth as he ended up within a touching distance of the top three. Caio Collet finished the session in fifth as two MP Motorsport cars were able to get themselves into the top five.
Looking further down the grid, Clement Novalak was sixth, Alexander Smolyar in seventh as the Russian lines up next to Ayumu Iwasa in eighth. Returning Juan Manuel Correa finished the session in ninth, two years after he claimed a podium in FIA Formula 2.
Logan Sargent completed the top 10 ahead of this weekend’s Feature Race. David Schumacher finished in 11th ensuring he will start from second in the first Sprint Race whilst Calan Williams of Jenzer Motorsport will inherit pole position and a clear run down to turn one.
As It Happened
As the drivers filtered out of the pitlane, the session saw the green light to signal the start of qualifying for the second round of the Championship at Paul Ricard. Correa was the first man on track but made a mistake at turn four as he compromised a whole host of cars behind.
Smolyar was the first driver to set a competitive lap time for ART Racing, setting a 1:52.393 to top the times ahead of Vesti before a Red Flag was promptly shown. Arthur Leclerc was left stranded as his Prema was ruled out for the duration of qualifying within the first seven minutes of the session.
The session was halted for five minutes as the stewards recovered Leclerc’s abandoned car. With only two lap times on the timing sheet, the field came out of the pitlane to try and set a banker lap ahead of the final showdown at the end of the session.
With 15 minutes remaining in the session, Prema Racing driver Hauger claimed provisional pole position in his bid to secure back-to-back poles. The Norwegian set a lap time of 1:51.688 ahead of Brazilian Collet and rookie Martins.
Current championship leader Hauger topped the day’s practice session by 0.250s, as it became no shock to see the 18-year-old at the top of the timing charts. His nearest rival and teammate Olli Caldwell was in 11th at the time, 0.858s off pole position.
As everyone exited the pitlane for the final time in qualifying, Hauger was the driver to beat with 10 minutes remaining. Everyone opted to do an extra preparation lap to ensure their tyres were in the optimal window when entering their final run in qualifying.
Hauger was lighting up the timesheets as he was the first to finish his lap. The Norwegian driver improved by six tenths as he flirted with a lap time sub 1:51.000. The rest of the grid started to come across the line as Martins jumped onto the front row and Doohan rose to third.
While everyone was left watching the front of the field, Vesti was quietly improving. The Mercedes Junior crossed the line to take pole position, as he became the first driver to set a lap time in the 1:50’s.
Hauger, Doohan and Smolyar all attempted to take pole position away from the ART driver but the trio failed to improve on their original lap times. Vesti secured the top spot with three green sectors as claimed not only pole position but also four Championship points in the Drivers’ Standings.
He lines up next to championship leader Hauger, who will be confident of his chances in Sunday’s Feature Race. Frenchman Martins completed the top three as he looks to celebrate in front of his home fans this weekend.
Quotes from the Drivers
Speaking exclusively to Prost International’s Cameron Anderson-Jones, pole-sitter Frederik Vesti, second-place Dennis Hauger and third-place Victor Martins shared their thoughts after today’s qualifying session.
Question for Frederik Vesti- We saw quite a lot of drivers sliding when approaching sector three, you managed to set three green sectors to claim pole position. Were you potentially preserving your tyres in sector one and two so that you had enough grip left to set a competitive sector three?
“Well, I think for everyone it was quite unexpected that almost everyone was doing their fastest lap of qualifying in the first run. From previous experience two years ago almost everyone did it on their second lap, so it was a bit different this time.
“You don’t go into sector one thinking you need to preserve anything, you really push it and then in sector three either your car will help you or it will slow you down. If you did well, you will have good tyres, I think it’s all about pushing throughout the whole lap.”
Question for Dennis Hauger – After last year’s French Grand Prix was cancelled, the majority of the grid have no experience around Paul Ricard in Formula 3 machinery. What have you been doing to get to grips with the circuit as quickly as possible? Have you watched any F3 footage from the 2019 weekend?
Dennis Hauger – “Yeah, I definitely watched quite a lot of 2019 so you know what there is to do as much at these circuits. Also a lot of time at the simulator with the team and meetings with the team to go for everything and try prepare myself as much as possible.
“I really have the whole idea and the techniques and all the details in mind already before I actually get there so yeah just trying to prepare as much as possible.”
What’s Next?
After Vesti picked up pole position, he will have to wait until Sunday to see if he can convert his good pace into a win. He will start from 12th in race one as we endure two sprint races before the main event on Sunday.
It is Calan Williams who will start from pole position for the first race of round two this weekend at Paul Ricard with David Schumacher next to him.
Saturday is poised to bring lots of excitement while many drivers will be left in the unknown entering race day having never raced with Formula 3 machinery around this track as the event was cancelled last year. One challenge they will face is nursing the Pirelli tyres which can be a big hurdle to overcome here in France.
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