Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Brad Bendavides took the second pole position of his partial FIA Formula 3 season in a split qualifying session at Monza, while champion Rafael Camara is set to start from last on the grid.
Even with the field being separated into two groups, drivers remained reluctant to give their rivals a tow. That was especially true of the first group on track in which most of the drivers, including Camara, only got time for one flying lap.
Camara recorded the quickest lap in Group A when he took the chequered flag with a time of 1m38.520s, but that would be deleted after he had exceeded track limits with a snap of oversteer on the exit the Roggia chicane, putting two wheels on the gravel in the process.
That handed a guaranteed front-row place to Ugo Ugochukwu, who had been 0.093 seconds slower than Camara.
Callum Voisin, Tim Tramnitz and Alessandro Giusti all crossed the line in time to do a second flying lap, but with no tow Voisin could only manage 10th in the group while MP Motorsport duo Tramnitz and Giusti could not improve upon fifth and fourth respectively, behind Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak and Roman Bilinski.
The Group B drivers appeared to learn the lessons of Group A, with some of them making time for three flying laps.
Noah Stromsted was quickest after the first laps, ahead of Noel Leon, Theophile Nael and Mari Boya. Campos Racing’s Boya went faster on his next lap, despite flapping sidepod bodywork, before Charlie Wurz and then Tuukka Taponen went underneath Ugochukwu’s time, guaranteeing pole would come from the second group.
Leon returned to the top of the times at the chequered flag, only for Benavides to go 0.262s faster in his AIX Racing car, posting a time of 1m38.120s.
Nikola Tsolov had his first flying lap time deleted but came back to take third in the group in front of Zagazeta and Taponen, who did not improve his time at the end. Martinius Stenshorne did a Camara on his first lap but went second to Taponen when he took the flag, finishing up sixth.
Qualifying results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Group A | Group B | Laps |
| 1 | Brad Benavides | AIX Racing | 1m38.120s | 5 | |
| 2 | Ugo Ugochukwu | Prema | 1m38.613s | 3 | |
| 3 | Noel Leon | Prema | 1m38.382s | 5 | |
| 4 | Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak | Campos Racing | 1m38.626s | 3 | |
| 5 | Nikola Tsolov | Campos Racing | 1m38.467s | 5 | |
| 6 | Roman Bilinski | Rodin Motorsport | 1m38.667s | 5 | |
| 7 | Matias Zagazeta | DAMS | 1m38.482s | 5 | |
| 8 | Alessandro Giusti | MP Motorsport | 1m38.670s | 4 | |
| 9 | Tuukka Taponen | ART Grand Prix | 1m38.502s | 5 | |
| 10 | Tim Tramnitz | MP Motorsport | 1m38.825s | 4 | |
| 11 | Martinius Stenshorne | Hitech GP | 1m38.560s | 5 | |
| 12 | Laurens van Hoepen | ART Grand Prix | 1m38.988s | 3 | |
| 13 | Ivan Domingues | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m38.600s | 5 | |
| 14 | Brando Badoer | Prema | 1m39.028s | 3 | |
| 15 | Charlie Wurz | Trident | 1m38.604s | 5 | |
| 16 | Nikita Johnson | Hitech GP | 1m39.232s | 5 | |
| 17 | Mari Boya | Campos Racing | 1m38.638s | 5 | |
| 18 | Christian Ho | DAMS | 1m39.355s | 3 | |
| 19 | Noah Stromsted | Trident | 1m38.647s | 5 | |
| 20 | Callum Voisin | Rodin Motorsport | 1m39.447s | 4 | |
| 21 | Theophile Nael | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m38.699s | 5 | |
| 22 | James Wharton | ART Grand Prix | 1m39.473s | 3 | |
| 23 | Louis Sharp | Rodin Motorsport | 1m39.014s | 5 | |
| 24 | James Hedley | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m39.629s | 4 | |
| 25 | Gerrard Xie | Hitech GP | 1m39.084s | 6 | |
| 26 | Niko Lacorte | DAMS | 1m39.710s | 3 | |
| 27 | Bruno del Pino | MP Motorsport | 1m39.159s | 5 | |
| 28 | Nicola Marinangeli | AIX Racing | 1m40.033s | 3 | |
| 29 | Fernando Barrichello | AIX Racing | 1m39.319s | 5 | |
| 30 | Rafael Camara | Trident | 1m54.677s | 3 |