Practice-
Victor Martins made a positive start to Round 3, ending up fastest for ART Grand Prix in Free Practice. A 1:45.671 was the time to beat in a session that got quicker with every lap completed.
Roman Stanek started positively too for Invicta Racing, finishing second ahead of Dino Beganovic, who made a late improvement to go third for Hitech TGR.
After the tyre preparation laps, Joshua Duerksen set an early benchmark with a 1:49.034 for AIX Racing.
The times fell with every subsequent lap as Martins put ART on top with 10 minutes run on a 1:47.735, until Kush Maini pipped him by 0.012s.
Stanek was next to go quickest, a 1:47.689 by the Invicta driver meant the top three was separated by just 0.046s.
The trio improved once again but this time it was Maini who led the way, 1:46.437 for the DAMS Lucas Oil driver leaving his 0.3s clear ahead of Stanek and F2’s latest Feature Race winner, Alexander Dunne.
Jak Crawford put in an improved to cut the deficit to teammate Maini to just 0.013s, but Martins went back to the top shortly afterwards.
Duerksen returned to P1 with 15 minutes to go of the session as the Paraguayan set a 1:46.387, leaving the top five separated by less than a tenth of a second.
Stanek then restored Invicta to the top of the pile as he moved onto a 1:46.217. Crawford cut the gap to 0.031s as he improved to second as Martins then went third and 0.087s off the top.
Gabriele Mini took P1 for PREMA Racing, but only briefly, as a storming lap by Stanek resulted in a 1:45.820 and the fastest time once again.
Into the final five minutes, and times continued to fall, Martins laid down the marker of a 1:45.671 to go back ahead of Stanek.
A last minute improvement from Beganovic put him third ahead of Duerksen.
Qualifying-
DAMS Lucas Oil’s Jak Crawford left it to his last lap of the day to take pole position in Jeddah, beating ART Grand Prix rival Victor Martins for the top spot by just 0.022s in a fascinating qualifying session.
Martins had looked set for pole after completing his first flying lap, but Crawford’s 1:43.579 was enough to take the top spot, as Invicta Racing’s Leonardo Fornaroli rounded out the top three.
Martins set the early pace after the first set of laps, the Frenchman completing a 1:44.559 to lead Rodin Motorsport’s Alexander Dunne by 0.323s.
The drivers though were able to push on for a second attempt on their Supersoft tyres, and on this occasion, it was Arvid Lindblad on top thanks to a 1:44.250.
Martins kept his place in the top two though, albeit 0.073s off the Campos Racing rookie.
Several drivers, including Lindblad, then set off for a third flying lap. However, they aborted those attempts to head into the pit lane for a new set of tyres.
With just over 11 minutes to go in the session, the drivers came back out on the track on their new sets of tyres.
Gabriele Mini used that fresh rubber to rocket up to the top of the timesheets, only for Luke Browning to quickly drop him down in P2.
As the rest of the field looked to complete their laps though, the red flags were waved following John Bennett’s crash into the barrier at Turn 17.
Once the car was cleared from the track the session resumed with 5 minutes remaining, which led to a flurry of activity with only enough time for one flying lap.
Crawford rose to the top with a 1:43.579, beating Martins by just 0.022s to give DAMS their first pole since Melbourne in 2023.
The full top 10 are- Pole: Crawford, P2: Martins, P3: Fornaroli, P4: Browning, P5: Lindblad, P6: Dunne, P7: Marti, P8: Mini, P9: Verschoor and P10: Stanek.
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