Browning takes pole in thrilling finish to F3’s Silverstone qualifying

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

FIA Formula 3 Championship leader Luke Browning claimed pole in a thrilling finish to qualifying at Silverstone.

The session started dry, but it did not take long for rain to appear and it meant the early 1m45.475s benchmark set by Van Amersfoort Racing’s Noel Leon went unbeaten for a long time.

MP Motorsport’s Alex Dunne was 0.07 seconds behind in second place for a long time, with Prema’s Gabriele Mini in third.

It was only with three minutes to go that the track started to dry out to a degree where it seems worthwhile going for further flying laps and it led to a very busy track and a flurry of improvements after the chequered flag waved.

Rodin Motorsport’s Callum Voisin and Prema’s Arvid Lindblad were one of the first two to cross the line and went one-two, with Voisin setting a 1m45.397s to go fastest by 0.029s.

Trident’s Leonardo Fornaroli bettered him by 0.134s, then as the track continued to dry it was those who headed out later who had the advantage – but also faced more traffic.

That scuppered the chances of Prema’s Dino Beganovic, who had actually been set to improve with 30s to go but then backed out of his lap due to encountering cars ahead and then because of how close he remained to them he could not go faster on his final effort.

Browning, who had skipped the wet practice session, clinched pole with a 1m44.992s lap, taking top spot by just 0.045s. When informed he was fastest the Williams junior seemed surprised, and wildly celebrated over the radio.

Jenzer Motorsport’s Max Esterson was second fastest, Trident’s Sami Meguetounif was 0.092s off pole in third and his team-mate Fornaroli qualified fourth.

Voisin was shuffled down to ninth, while Lindblad and Leon ended up in 11th and 12th. That means Leon has reversed-grid pole for Saturday’s sprint race.

Qualifying results