Fornaroli sneaks to F3 pole in Melbourne

Leo Fornaroli has out-paced Gabriele Mini by a slim 19-millisecond margin to secure pole position at Albert Park, with Christian Mansell set to start tomorrow’s Sprint from third on the grid.

Ollie Goethe led the 30-car field out of the pitlane to kick start Formula 3 qualifying around Albert Park.

Towards the pack of the pack was Nicola Tsolov who, after causing a big incident in practice this morning, has been handed a three-place grid penalty.

The drivers set off, attempting to find a gap in traffic to begin their opening flying lap.

The opening time was marginally sub-two minutes, set by Goethe.

Unsurprisingly, that was shortly demoted by the likes of Leo Fornaroli and the Prema boys.

Santiago Ramos was the first driver to take a trip through the gravel trap, doing so at Turn 3 after losing the rear of his Trident.

Tsolov had a few issues into Turn 2, flying across the grass as opposed to the usual on-track route. 

Home racer, Christian Mansell managed to get his ART into eighth-fastest, 1.4 seconds off the quickest pace.

The second Australian in this category was further back, seeing Tommy Smith sitting in P21 with 20 minutes on the board.

Following the second round of flying laps, it was Fornaroli who maintained provisional pole. 

Gabriele Mini closed in on the Italian, however, crossing the line just 20 milliseconds slower than the Trident driver to take P2.

In provisional P3, it was Luke Browning, clear of the threat of Dino Beganovic after the Swede made an error on his latest flying lap.

Mansell’s second run was closer to the benchmark, moving him up into P6.

Not so ideal was Tim Tramnitz, who ran quick into Turn 10 to take a trip across the gravel, with Turn 12 also claiming victims in the first half of the session.

The drivers returned to the pits, resetting before commencing the second half of the session in Melbourne. 

With just over 10 minutes to go, the field set off for the second and final flying laps, racing one another during two tense out-laps to the line.

Piotr Wisnicki had a strange moment as his Rodin Carlin was stationary at Turn 2.

He was able to get going again, ending the yellow flag period and joining at the back of the queue. 

The championship leader set off on his flying lap, hopeful of improving to provisional pole.

In the Williams colours, Browning lost time in the opening sector, while Mini and Fornaroli made up time.

Mansell also looked set to improve, setting personal bests across the lap before a late red flag ruined his chances of any major promotion. 

Sami Meguetounif lost it into the final corner, seeing his #5 car crushed in the barriers at Turn 14. 

He was ok, his car not so much.

Mini and Tramnitz were the sole drivers behind the Trident that were able to cross the line without their laps being affected, seeing the latter promoted into the top twelve, and Mini into provisional pole.

The clock paused with 4 minutes remaining. 

When they finally resumed qualifying, it was a tussle for track position, with the drivers going three wide in order to move further up the queue.

Fornaroli’s lap was strong, going purple in the first sector before setting two other personal bests.

His efforts were quick enough to demote Mini, and intern secure pole position with a time of 1:33.044s. 

Mini’s lap fell just short of the Italian, missing out by just 19 milliseconds, while his teammate recovered to P3. 

Nikita Bedrin improved from the midfield, set to start the Feature race from P4, while Luke Browning completes the top five qualifiers. 

As for the Australians, Christian Mansell qualified in P10, seeing him set to start tomorrow’s Sprint from the top three. 

Tommy Smith’s messy last lap has made his chances of points at home all the more difficult after running wide at Turn 10. 

The Van Amersfoort driver will start both F3 races from the very back of the grid.

The Formula 3 sprint race will start at 11:15 AM, Saturday.

F3 Qualifying Results:

Image: Peter Norton EPIC Sports Photography

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