Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd
Rafael Camara continued his commanding form in FIA Formula 3 as he took a second successive pole position in Bahrain.
The Trident-run Ferrari junior had followed his Melbourne pole and feature race victory by topping last month’s in-season test at Sakhir and Friday morning’s practice session, but wasn’t among the top 10 after the first runs at the start of qualifying.
It was instead Nikola Tsolov fastest at that early stage ahead of Christian Ho, James Wharton and Alessandro Giusti.
Giusti took over top spot with his second run in the middle third of the session, only for Callum Voisin to go faster still. Camara slotted into third place with Tsolov now fourth.
The entire field returned to the pits once more before emerging for a third and final run, when Voisin and Camara traded fastest sectors in the first two parts of the lap.
It was Camara who claimed pole though, going more than half a second quicker than the previous benchmark, with Rodin Motorsport’s Voisin having to settle for second, 0.156s away.
Camara’s team-mate Charlie Wurz lapped four tenths slower to go third, before his time was matched by DAMS driver Ho.
Bruno del Pino finished a surprise fifth for MP Motorsport having gone fastest of all when he crossed the line with his final lap.
His time would keep him ahead of Formula 1 juniors Tuukka Taponen, Noah Stromsted, Tsolov and team-mate Giusti. Freddie Slater rounded out the top 10 in his debut F3 qualifying session for AIX Racing.
Hitech’s Noah Stromsted and Joshua Dufek rounded out the top 12 and will share the front row of the reversed grid for Saturday’s sprint race.
Several drivers had laptimes deleted for exceeding track limits, including Wharton on his final attempt, which left him 24th.
Qualifying results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rafael Camara | Trident | 1m49.214s | 11 | |
| 2 | Callum Voisin | Rodin Motorsport | 1m49.370s | +0.156s | 11 |
| 3 | Charlie Wurz | Trident | 1m49.618s | +0.404s | 11 |
| 4 | Christian Ho | DAMS | 1m49.618s | +0.404s | 11 |
| 5 | Bruno del Pino | MP Motorsport | 1m49.755s | +0.541s | 12 |
| 6 | Tuukka Taponen | ART Grand Prix | 1m49.762s | +0.548s | 12 |
| 7 | Noah Stromsted | Trident | 1m49.853s | +0.639s | 12 |
| 8 | Nikola Tsolov | Campos Racing | 1m49.898s | +0.684s | 11 |
| 9 | Alessandro Giusti | MP Motorsport | 1m49.905s | +0.691s | 11 |
| 10 | Freddie Slater | AIX Racing | 1m49.928s | +0.714s | 11 |
| 11 | Martinius Stenshorne | Hitech | 1m49.978s | +0.764s | 10 |
| 12 | Joshua Dufek | Hitech | 1m50.057s | +0.843s | 10 |
| 13 | Tim Tramnitz | MP Motorsport | 1m50.082s | +0.868s | 11 |
| 14 | Noel Leon | Prema | 1m50.119s | +0.905s | 11 |
| 15 | Javier Sagrera | AIX Racing | 1m50.154s | +0.940s | 11 |
| 16 | Brando Badoer | Prema | 1m50.171s | +0.957s | 11 |
| 17 | Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak | Campos Racing | 1m50.217s | +1.003s | 12 |
| 18 | Louis Sharp | Rodin Motorsport | 1m50.223s | +1.009s | 11 |
| 19 | Roman Bilinski | Rodin Motorsport | 1m50.314s | +1.100s | 11 |
| 20 | Mari Boya | Campos Racing | 1m50.380s | +1.166s | 11 |
| 21 | Ugo Ugochukwu | Prema | 1m50.385s | +1.171s | 12 |
| 22 | Theophile Nael | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m50.390s | +1.176s | 11 |
| 23 | Ivan Domingues | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m50.396s | +1.182s | 11 |
| 24 | James Wharton | ART Grand Prix | 1m50.425s | +1.211s | 11 |
| 25 | Niko Lacorte | DAMS | 1m50.480s | +1.266s | 12 |
| 26 | Laurens van Hoepen | ART Grand Prix | 1m50.560s | +1.346s | 12 |
| 27 | Gerrard Xie | Hitech | 1m50.583s | +1.369s | 10 |
| 28 | Matias Zagazeta | DAMS | 1m50.624s | +1.410s | 11 |
| 29 | Nicola Marinangeli | AIX Racing | 1m50.769s | +1.555s | 11 |
| 30 | Santiago Ramos | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1m50.793s | +1.579s | 10 |