Photo: F3 Open/Fotospeedy
Canadian racer Nelson Mason claimed pole position for the first round of the European F3 Open Winter Series at Paul Ricard, clearing the rest of the field by nearly half a second.
In a thirty minute session, which saw F2 graduate Hector Hurst and Formula Abarth graduate Santiago Urrutia battle for the top of the leaderboards in the beginning, Mason emerged as the pacesetter with ten minutes to go, setting a time that put him comfortably ahead of the rest of the field.
Mason’s West-Tec teammate Ed Jones finished the session in second after being the fastest man on Thursday, while Hurst and his teammate Alexey Chuklin occupied the second row. The top RP Motorsport driver, Alexandre Cougnaud, was fifth, with Sandy Stuvik and Urrutia lining up behind. In eight, Matteo Davenia was quickest out of the Copa F308 drivers (after dominating the class for most of the weekend). Andres Saravia was ninth, ahead of two other Copa drivers mixing it up with the main class – Alex Toril and Mattia Vita.
The race is scheduled to take place at 14:00 GMT, with the Paul Ricard round being one out of two in the F3 Open Winter Series programme.
Qualifying results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap | Laps |
| 1 | Nelson Mason | Team West-Tec | F312 | 2m02.834s | 8 | |
| 2 | Ed Jones | Team West-Tec | F312 | 2m03.273s | +0.439s | 9 |
| 3 | Hector Hurst | Emilio de Villota | F312 | 2m03.387s | +0.553s | 11 |
| 4 | Alexey Chuklin | Emilio de Villota | F312 | 2m03.448s | +0.614s | 12 |
| 5 | Alexandre Cougnaud | RP Motorsport | F312 | 2m03.474s | +0.640s | 13 |
| 6 | Sandy Stuvik | RP Motorsport | F312 | 2m03.830s | +0.996s | 11 |
| 7 | Santiago Urrutia | RP Motorsport | F312 | 2m03.926s | +1.092s | 12 |
| 8 | Matteo Davenia | DAV Racing | F308 | 2m04.070s | +1.236s | 11 |
| 9 | Andres Saravia | Emilio de Villota | F312 | 2m04.288s | +1.454s | 9 |
| 10 | Alex Toril | RP Motorsport | F308 | 2m04.316s | +1.482s | 13 |
| 11 | Mattia Vita | Top F3 | F308 | 2m04.485s | +1.651s | 13 |
| 12 | Valeria Carballo | Campos Racing | F312 | 2m05.079s | +2.245s | 12 |
| 13 | Igor Urien | Emilio de Villota | F308 | 2m05.159s | +2.325s | 14 |
| 14 | Cameron Twynham | Team West-Tec | F308 | 2m05.214s | +2.380s | 14 |
| 15 | Sean Walkinshaw | Team West-Tec | F308 | 2m05.429s | +2.595s | 11 |
| 16 | Lorenzo Paggi | Corbetta Competizioni | F308 | 2m05.434s | +2.600s | 14 |
| 17 | Liam Venter | Team West-Tec | F308 | 2m05.436s | +2.602s | 11 |
| 18 | Denis Nagulin | Campos Racing | F312 | 2m05.492s | +2.658s | 14 |
| 19 | Richard Gonda | Drivex School | F308 | 2m05.871s | +3.037s | 12 |
| 20 | Artur Janosz | Campos Racing | F312 | 2m05.906s | +3.072s | 12 |
| 21 | Che One Lim | Emilio de Villota | F308 | 2m06.060s | +3.226s | 10 |
| 22 | Luca Orlandi | Team West-Tec | F312 | 2m06.446s | +3.612s | 10 |
| 23 | Nicholas Pohler | DAV Racing | F308 | 2m06.931s | +4.097s | 12 |
| 24 | Jordan Perroy | Top F3 | F312 | 2m07.003s | +4.169s | 12 |