Photo: FOTOSPEEDY
Team West-Tec’s Ed Jones made a huge step towards securing the F3 Open 2013 title this morning as he topped the final qualifying of the year at Catalunya.
However, the title fight is far from over as title contender Sandy Stuvik will be joining Jones on the front row, with the pair separated by less than two tenths.
Behind Stuvik, two of his teammates, Santiago Urrutia and Alexandre Cougnaud, make up the second row of the grid. Nelson Mason lined up in fifth and will start alongside series returnee Tatiana Calderon, who narrowly edged Alex Toril out for sixth.
BVM duo Mario Marasca and Vicky Piria took eighth and ninth respectively, and Niholas Pohler rounded out the top ten.
Reigning Copa class champion Richard Gonda took pole in his category, beating Tommaso Menchini and Cameron Twynham by 0.2s and 0.4s respectively.
Coming into the race, Jones leads Stuvik by seven points and, unlike the Thai racer, is not set to drop any scores, having missed the first round of the championship. RP Motorsport’s title challenger has two P5 finishes as his worst results and, as such, will not be add more than 16 points to his tally.
Qualifying results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
| 1 | Ed Jones | Team West-Tec | 1:41.849 | 8 | |
| 2 | Sandy Stuvik | RP Motorsport | 1:42.022 | +0.173 | 12 |
| 3 | Santiago Urrutia | RP Motorsport | 1:42.161 | +0.312 | 11 |
| 4 | Alexandre Cougnaud | RP Motorsport | 1:42.259 | +0.410 | 12 |
| 5 | Nelson Mason | Team West-Tec | 1:42.494 | +0.645 | 12 |
| 6 | Tatiana Calderon | EmiliodeVillota Motorsport | 1:42.911 | +1.062 | 16 |
| 7 | Alex Toril | RP Motorsport | 1:42.938 | +1.089 | 12 |
| 8 | Mario Marasca | BVM Racing | 1:43.075 | +1.226 | 11 |
| 9 | Vicky Piria | BVM Racing | 1:43.338 | +1.489 | 11 |
| 10 | Nicolas Pohler | DAV Racing | 1:43.407 | +1.558 | 12 |
| 11 | Hector Hurst | EmiliodeVillota Motorsport | 1:43.517 | +1.668 | 15 |
| 12 | Richard Gonda | Drivex School | 1:43.549 | +1.700 | 12 |
| 13 | Damiano Fioravanti | Corbetta Competizioni | 1:43.694 | +1.845 | 11 |
| 14 | Tommaso Menchini | Corbetta Competizioni | 1:43.786 | +1.937 | 11 |
| 15 | Denis Nagulin | Campos Racing | 1:43.803 | +1.954 | 12 |
| 16 | Cameron Twynham | Team West-Tec | 1:43.829 | +1.980 | 15 |
| 17 | Andr?s Saravia | EmiliodeVillota Motorsport | 1:43.875 | +2.026 | 9 |
| 18 | Che One Lim | EmiliodeVillota Motorsport | 1:43.918 | +2.069 | 15 |
| 19 | Huan Zhu | Team West-Tec | 1:43.921 | +2.072 | 11 |
| 20 | Alexey Chuklin | EmiliodeVillota Motorsport | 1:43.958 | +2.109 | 13 |
| 21 | Christopher Hoeher | Team West-Tec | 1:44.018 | +2.169 | 10 |
| 22 | Artur Janosz | Campos Racing | 1:44.113 | +2.264 | 11 |
| 23 | Igor Urien | EmiliodeVillota Motorsport | 1:44.296 | +2.447 | 12 |
| 24 | Sean Walkinshaw | Team West-Tec | 1:44.310 | +2.461 | 13 |
| 25 | Saud Al-Faisal | RP Motorsport | 1:45.247 | +3.398 | 12 |
| 26 | William Barbosa | Corbetta Competizioni | 1:45.283 | +3.434 | 11 |
| 27 | Gerardo Nieto | DAV Racing | 1:45.304 | +3.455 | 10 |
| 28 | Constantino Peroni | RP Motorsport | 1:45.848 | +3.999 | 12 |
| 29 | Yarin Stern | EmiliodeVillota Motorsport | 1:47.550 | +5.701 | 3 |
| 30 | Valeria Carballo | Campos Racing | 1:47.668 | +5.819 | 3 |