Collet on F3 pole at Spa, top four title contenders 20th or lower

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Caio Collet took pole position in a mixed-up Formula 3 qualifying at Spa on a wet but drying track.

Joint championship leaders Isack Hadjar and Victor Martins will share the 12th row of the grid in 23rd and 24th, with third-placed Arthur Leclerc only managing 20th in the session.

Qualifying started in wet conditions. After the first 10 minutes, Ollie Bearman was quickest with team-mate Leclerc just a tenth of a second behind. But a stoppage just before the half way mark gave time for the weather to clear.

Jak Crawford – fourth in the championship – spun and came to a stop on track, bringing out the red flags with just over 19 minutes left on the clock. When the track turned green again, the remaining drivers felt the track was good enough for slick tyres.

Lap times tumbled throughout the second half of the session. Many drivers, including Hadjar and Martins, took turns at the front of the order. Traffic was also an issue, with Martins and Leclerc among those caught out at the final corner of their flying laps.

It was Roman Stanek leading in the closing minutes of the session when Hadjar came to a stop on track in the first sector. That incident brought out the yellow flags, but most of the field were still able to find improvements.

Zane Maloney found time on Stanek to take provisional pole before Collet set a time of 2m11.289s. The time was more than two tenths of a second clear of the rest of the field and earned him his first pole of the season.

Maloney took second ahead of unlikely second-row qualifiers Francesco Pizzi (whose previous best grid position was 19th) and Oliver Goethe, who improved late on to go fourth in his second F3 qualifying session.

Stanek dropped down to fifth, and will start alongside Jonny Edgar. Of the top five in the championship, Bearman was best-placed. He took the chequered flag to go eighth behind Alexander Smolyar. Completing the top 10 were Franco Colapinto and Brad Benavides, who had previously yet to qualify inside the top 20 in his rookie season.

Qualifying result