Nael continues Monaco mastery with F3 pole position

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Theophile Nael was able to snatch FIA Formula 3 pole position in Monaco ahead of Brando Badoer.

In a split qualifying session, the French Campos Racing driver went quickest in group B with a laptime of 1m24.471s, putting him 0.141 seconds clear of the time set by the Italian Rodin Motorsport driver to top group A.

Nael’s team-mate Ugo Ugochukwu was first to set a representative lap time in group A, though the American’s time was quickly bettered by Trident’s Noah Stromstred who went 0.018s quicker despite a big slide in the final sector.

ART Grand Prix’s Taito Kato went quickest of all with a 1m25.988, becoming the first driver to dip into the 1.25s. Behind him though Ugochukwu found time to go 0.282s quicker before Badoer toppled them all with a 1m25.287s moving the Rodin driver 0.419s clear.

With just two minutes remaining, MP Motorsport’s Tuukka Taponen improved to the front with a 1m25.242s while Hitech’s Fionn McLaughlin found the wall at turn 7 damaging his front wing.

With the chequered flag out, Ugochukwu moved to the front of the field with a 1m24.963s but this was quickly bettered by Badoer who set three purple sectors to move 0.361s clear, making a 1m24.612s the time to beat for the second group.

Having topped the only practice session on Thursday, Nael set the early pace with a 1m25.729s putting the Frenchman 0.252s clear of Rodin’s Pedro Clerot in second.

It wasn’t long before ART’s Maciej Gladysz toppled the Campos driver, a 1m25.575s enough for him to hold top spot briefly before Trident’s Freddie Slater moved to the front with a 1m24.986s.

With three minutes remaining the Audi junior went again but found the wall at turn 7, clipping the barrier and losing a piece of his front wing. That meant that Nael was able to re-claim top spot with a 1m24.522s which he then bettered on his final run, improving to a 1m24.471s.

The Campos driver’s final lap meant he snatched pole position away from Badoer by just 0.141s. Slater was fortunate to hold on to second in the group having been unable to improve on his final lap.

On his F3 debut after missing round one with a back injury, Campos’ Ernesto Rivera claimed third place in the gruop with Alessandro Giusti and Pedro Clerot rounding out the top five.

With the results from both groups combined, Nael will line up alongside Badoer for Sunday’s feature Race with Slater and Ugochukwu forming row two.

Qualifying results