Billy Monger claims maiden BRDC British F3 pole on Donington return

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Billy Monger claimed pole position for the first race of the BRDC British Formula 3 weekend at Donington Park as championship leader Linus Lundqvist qualified down in 14th.

In what is his first race weekend at Donington since his crash at the circuit in British Formula 4 in 2017, Monger didn’t head up to the top of the timesheets until seven minutes of the session were left.

With Carlin team-mate Nicolai? Kjaergaard becoming the first driver to go under 1m25s with four minutes to go, Monger went two-tenths of a second quicker on his penultimate lap to take his first pole position in BRDC British F3.

Kjaergaard was able to improve his time at the chequered flag but wasn’t able to overtake Monger to claim pole position, but did give Carlin a front row lockout.

He was given a boost as championship leader Linus Lundqvist, who could win the title this weekend, qualified down in 14th.

The qualifying order was changing throughout the session after the session restarted from being red flagged to get Ben Hurst’s Hillspeed car out of the gravel.

Returning to British F3 after competing in the Spa-Francorchamps round this year, Ayrton Simmons took third position on his final qualifying lap with a 1m25.000s.

He knocked down Hillspeed’s Jusuf Owega down to fourth position after the German moved up with two minutes left in the session.

The third row of the grid was completed by Fortec’s Manuel Maldonado and Carlin’s Jamie Caroline.

Kush Maini qualified in seventh place for Lanan Racing with a lap time of 1m25.355s and will start alongside Double R Racing’s Krishnaraaj Mahadik.

Sasakorn Chaimongkol and Jamie Chadwick complete the top 10 of the grid for race one.

Qualifying results