Rafael Camara earns third straight F3 pole at Imola

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Ferrari junior Rafael Camara took his third straight pole position in Formula 3 qualifying at Imola.

Camara’s final lap of the session put him 0.2s clear of Santiago Ramos at the top of the order while team-mate Noah Stromsted made it a Trident 1-3.

A red flag brought out by an off for Tasanapol Inthrapuvasak disrupted running, leading to a frantic second half of the session. 

The stoppage came just as drivers were beginning to improve on their second runs. Camara had set the pace during the first run, but had just been pipped to provisional pole by Brando Badoer. Badoer completed his flying lap moments before the red flag was thrown, beating Camara’s time by 0.015s. The top six were covered by just a tenth of a second.

On the restart the Trident drivers, as well as Rodin’s Callum Voisin, waited in the pits while everyone else returned to the track.

Lap times were soon tumbling. Ramos jumped to the top of the order with a time of 1m32.442s. Behind him, second position changed hands multiple times, with Tim Tramniz, Bruno del Pino, and Nikola Tsolov all briefly holding the position.

Ramos’ time remained untouched until the Trident drivers hit the track again. Camara set a purple second sector on his way to the top of the order, a time of 1m32.206s.

Behind him on track, Stromsted was also making improvements. Laurens van Hoepen had a big spin, bringing out local yellow flags, but was able to get going again and did not curtail the session. It allowed Stromsted to complete his lap and jump up to third, 0.244s behind Camara.

Tuukka Taponen was fourth quickest ahead of Louis Sharp and Roman Bilinski. 

Prema’s Ugo Ugochukwu and Noel Leon were seventh and eighth while Badoer slipped back to 15th by the chequered flag. Tsolov and Mari Boya completed the top 10with Tramnitz and del Pino finishing 11th and 12th.

Qualifying results