Home Featured HWA’s Jake Hughes snatches Paul Ricard FIA F3 pole from Jehan Daruvala

HWA’s Jake Hughes snatches Paul Ricard FIA F3 pole from Jehan Daruvala

by Kyran Gibbons

Photo: Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F3 Championship

HWA’s Jake Hughes snatched FIA Formula 3 pole position at Paul Ricard away from Prema Racing’s Jehan Daruvala, who dominated the session up until the final lap.

Daruvala claimed provisional pole with his first lap of the 30-minute qualifying session and proceeded to lower the benchmark on each timed lap that followed, fending off Christian Lundgaard, Leonardo Pulcini and Robert Shwartzman who had all briefly grabbed top spot before Daruvala instantly topped their times.

The only lap in which Daruvala failed to improve on his previous best was his last effort in the session. Hughes took the opportunity, recording session best times in sectors one and two to overcome Daruvala’s grip on pole and snatch top spot by 0.087s.

Ferrari junior Shwartzman, who entered the final run as the closest threat to team-mate Daruvala’s pole did manage to improve his time on his last lap – recording a time to match the Indian’s pace through the first two sectors – but lost over two tenths through the technical final sector.

Marcus Armstrong was on course to make it three Premas in the top four, after he recovered from a slugglish start to the session with strong pace late on. Pedro Piquet denied Armstrong fourth place with a blistering final lap, the Trident driver leaping up from outside of the top 20.

Pulcini was sixth for Hitech GP, ahead of his team-mate Juri Vips, who delivered impressive straight line speed throughout the session to consistently post rapid times through the second sector.

Bent Viscaal popped up to grab eighth place in the dying moments of the session as the second HWA-prepared car to vault up the field late on.

Practice pacesetter Niko Kari was ninth for Trident after a snakes and ladders session in which he sat as high as third and as low as 17th.

Despite setting the pace during pre-season testing at Paul Ricard, ART Grand Prix’s Lundgaard slipped back to 12th after struggling to improve during his second run.

He was still the fastest ART driver, with reigning Eurocup champion Max Fewtrell qualifying 14th and David Beckmann failing to make an impression on the session in 22th.

 

Qualifying result
Pos Driver Team Time Gap
1 Jake Hughes HWA Racelab 1:49.519
2 Jehan Daruvala Prema Racing 1:49.606 0.087
3 Robert Shwartzman Prema Racing 1:49.758 0.239
4 Pedro Piquet Trident 1:49.944 0.425
5 Marcus Armstrong Prema Racing 1:50.066 0.547
6 Leonardo Pulcini Hitech Grand Prix 1:50.095 0.576
7 Juri Vips Hitech Grand Prix 1:50.128 0.609
8 Bent Viscaal HWA Racelab 1:50.192 0.673
9 Niko Kari Trident 1:50.253 0.734
10 Alex Peroni Campos Racing 1:50.316 0.797
11 Logan Sargeant Carlin Buzz Racing 1:50.345 0.826
12 Christian Lundgaard ART Grand Prix 1:50.378 0.859
13 Richard Verschoor MP Motorsport 1:50.451 0.932
14 Max Fewtrell ART Grand Prix 1:50.456 0.937
15 Liam Lawson MP Motorsport 1:50.468 0.949
16 Yifei Ye Hitech Grand Prix 1:50.491 0.972
17 Lirim Zendeli Sauber Junior Team by Charouz 1:50.510 0.991
18 Felipe Drugovich Carlin Buzz Racing 1:50.549 1.030
19 Devlin Defrancesco Trident 1:50.566 1.047
20 Simo Laaksonen MP Motorsport 1:50.585 1.066
21 Teppei Natori Carlin Buzz Racing 1:50.673 1.154
22 David Beckmann ART Grand Prix 1:50.716 1.197
23 Fabio Scherer Sauber Junior Team by Charouz 1:50.749 1.230
24 Raoul Hyman Sauber Junior Team by Charouz 1:50.791 1.272
25 Keyvan Andres HWA Racelab 1:51.068 1.549
26 Sebastian Fernandez Campos Racing 1:51.272 1.753
27 Yuki Tsunoda Jenzer Motorsport 1:51.987 2.468
28 Andreas Estner Jenzer Motorsport 1:52.066 2.547
29 Alessio Deledda Campos Racing 1:54.226 4.707