Free Practice-
Gabriel Bortoleto hit the ground running in Spielberg, setting the track record with a 1:19.410 to top the free practice session for Trident.
The Brazilian driver was 0.148s quicker than Jenzer Motorsport’s Taylor Barnad, while Gabriele Mini left it late to take third for Hitech Pulse-Eight.
Once the tyre preparation laps were complete, Paul Aron set the initial benchmark to beat with a 1:21.998 on his first effort. The Estonian’s 1:21.205 was three-tenths quicker than PREMA Racing teammate Dino Beganovic, who had a heart-in-mouth moment shortly after.
With just over 16 minutes remaining the red flags were out after Sebastian Montoya beached his Hitech car in the gravel trap on the outside of Turn 7.
Once the session resumed with 12 minutes remaining, everyone returned to the track. ART Grand Prix’s Saucy was the first in the queue with prime track position and set a 1:20.306 for the rest to beat.
Qualifying-
ART Grand Prix’s Gregoire Saucy secured his first Formula 3 pole position in Spielberg after a dramatic qualifying session around the Red Bull Ring. PREMA Racing’s Paul Aron had ended the session fastest of all but dropped to P4 after exceeding track limits.
His demotion moved Saucy up into P1 and PREMA teammate Dino Beganovic onto the front row. While Championship leader Gabriel Bortoleto secured third place in his Trudent.
With patches of rain on the weather radars, everyone was out immediately at the green light. Caio Collet led the way as the rest jostled for Track position and the Van Amersfoort driver set the first time to beat.
With 15 minutes gone, Beganovic headed up Aron, Gabriel Bortoleto, Josep Maria Marti and Gabriele Mini in the top five. After everyone returned to the pits to fit a fresh set of the soft Pirelli tyres, the track was busy once again with under 10 minutes remaining.
There were improvements throughout the field, but nobody could leap ahead of either PREMA driver prior to the final two minutes of the session.
The full top 10 are: P1: Saucy, P2: Beganovic, P3: Bortoleto, P4: Aron, P5: Collet, P6: O’Sullivan, P7: Colapinto, P8: Goethe, P9: Frederick and P10: Mansell.
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