Caranta quickest at Monza in red-flagged Eurocup-3 qualifying

Photo: Red Bull

Campos Racing’s Jules Caranta took pole in a dramatic second Eurocup-3 qualifying session at Monza.

Owen Tangavelou put Allay Racing on top during the first half of the 20-minute session, setting a 1m46.963s.

A flurry of improvements meant he was quickly shuffled down to sixth, as MP Motorsport’s Mattia Colnaghi lowered the pace to 1m45.969s and his team-mate Valerio Rinicella moved into second.

Campos’s Ernesto Rivera got within 0.147 seconds of Colnaghi as the session’s second half began, and team-mate Jesse Carrasquedo Jr posted a 1m46.574s to go fifth fastest behind Palou Motorsport’s James Egozi.

Carrasquedo improved to 1m46.125s and third a few minutes later, as Caranta brought himself up to fifth.

The provisional pole time became a 1m45.824s with four minutes to go as Colnaghi set a new personal best, which kept him 0.256s ahead of Carrasquedo who also improved.

Egozi found more pace to be in fourth when red flags waved with three-and-a-half minutes remaining due to Sainteloc Racing’s Garrett Berry having an incident.

With the time remaining, it was possible to set two flying laps but Egozi and Campos’s Enzo Tarnvanichkul in sixth decided to remain in the pits.

Campos’s Andres Cardenas was the first improver in the top 10 after the chequered flag, going seventh fastest. Moments later, Caranta shot to the top with a 1m45.796s, and team-mate Ernesto Rivera set a 1m45.866s to take third from Rinicella who als imprimpved.

Polish Maciej Gladysz (MP) and Kacper Sztuka (Campos) lowered their pace with their final laps, and were split by 0.01s as they slotted into sixth and seventh. Egozi was shuffled down to eighth, and Colnaghi did not improve but qualified second.

Qualifying results