Free Practice-
Martinius Stenshorne led the way at the Barcelona free practice, as the Hitech Pulse-Eight driver completed a lap of 1:28.774 to top the timesheets ahead of Campos Racing’s Oliver Goethe and PREMA Racing’s Gabriele Mini.
After a quiet first half of the 45 minute session, the drivers head out on to the track for their flying laps of the day, and after the first efforts, it was Mini that went fastest.
The Championship leader completed a lap of 1:28.847 to go six-tenths clear at the front ahead of Van Amersfoort Racing’s Noel Leon in second.
Next to go to the top of the timesheets was Campos’ Goethe, who set a time of 1:28.810, while his teammate Sebastian Montoya moved up to third behind Mini.
While most of the gird came back into the pitlane with 10 minutes left, Hitech Pulse Eight’s trio of drivers stayed out on track.
Stenshorne then went quickest with a 1:28.774 while Luke Browning was two-tenths back in fourth as Cian Shields went to P8.
As the session entered into the final five minutes, the red flags were waved with Campos’ Mari Boya in the barrier at Turn 1. The home favourite appeared to suffer an issue on the run down the main straight sending him through the gravel and then into the wall.
Qualifying-
Christian Mansell is set to start Formula 3’s 100th race from Pole Position after he beat PREMA Racing’s Arvid Lindblad to top spot in a dramatic qualifying.
The ART Grand Prix driver set a 1:28.463 on his final attempt in the session to take his maiden Pole in the category, with Lindblad ending up second just 0.036s off the pace, while Mansell’s teammate Nikola Tsolov was third.
After the first set of laps, it was the third ART driver Laurens van Hoepen who went fastest. The Dutchman’s time of 1:29.187 saw him beat Trident’s Leonardo Fornaroli to the top spot by less than a tenth.
The drivers then returned to the pitlane and strapped on a second set of Pirelli hard tyres in preparation for the next set of push laps.
As they crossed the line to complete the second flying efforts it was Luke Browning that went fastest with a 1:28.888.
On the final runs, the fastest effort changed hands multiple times before Mansell eclipsed Lindblad’s time by just 0.036s with his lap of 1:28.463 giving him his first Formula 3 pole position.
The full top 10 are- Pole: Mansell, P2: Lindblad, P3: Tsolov, P4: Browning, P5: Goethe, P6: Fornaroli, P7: Stenshorne, P8: Van Hoepen, P9: Dunne and P10: Boya.
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