Santiago Ramos claims Imola F3 pole in Trident top-three lock-out

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Santiago Ramos claimed his first ever car racing pole position in outstanding FIA Formula 3 qualifying session for Trident at Imola.

The Italian outfit locked out the top three positions as local star Leonardo Fornaroli was second, followed by Sami Meguetounif in third place.

MP Motorsport’s Tim Tramnitz and Alex Dunne were the first drivers to set a competitive laptime. However, they were quickly bettered by Fornaroli setting a benchmark of 1m32.694s while Red Bull junior Tramnitz had his lap deleted.

Prema’s Gabriele Mini was next to top the charts by 0.096 seconds. Meanwhile, ART Grand Prix’s Laurens Van Hoepen slotted into third, followed by Mini’s teammate Dino Beganovic and Campos Racing’s Oliver Goethe.

The red flag came out 10 minutes into the session and before anyone had set a second flying lap, after Rodin Motorsport’s Callum Voisin lost the control of his car at the Tamburello chicane and beached his car into the gravel trap.

Hitech GP’s Luke Browning, who was yet to set a representative laptime, rose to fourth place as the session resumed. Then Goethe improved to go fastest.

Trident and MP started their runs later, and therefore stayed out when the rest returned to the pit-lane. Their strategy paid dividends and Fornaroli set the fastest time followed by Dunne 0.141 seconds. Meguetounif and Tramnitz were fourth and sixth respectively after that last lap on the first set of tyres.

Drivers coming out on a fresh set of tyres meant lots of green sectors in the timing sheet. Prema’s Arvid Lindblad claimed the top spot followed by Beganovic. However, Fornaroli regained it as he headed out, but he was beaten by his teammate Ramos.

A late lap upped Goethe to eighth place, but it was then deleted meaning he was 13th fastest in the final classification.

MP’s Kacper Sztuka was 12th fastest and will start the sprint race from reversed-grid pole, with Van Amersfoort Racing’s Noel Leon alongside him.

Voisin and ART Grand Prix’s Nikola Tsolov will each serve a three-place grid penalty in the sprint race after failing to stay above the minimum ECU time when free practice was red-flagged.

Qualifying results