Photo: Audi F1 Team
Freddie Slater claimed pole position in FIA Formula 3 qualifying at Spa-Francorchamps in a session marred by a huge crash involving his teammate Noah Stromsted.
With rain beginning to fall in the opening parts of the session, drivers took to the track quickly looking to set an early laptime.
Prema were first out with Louis Sharp briefly going to the front with a 2m06.864s only for Pedro Clerot and Hiyu Yamakoshi to go faster, Yamakoshi setting a 2m05.489s to put him ahead at the front.
MP Motorsport’s Tuukka Taponen was next to take to the top of the timesheets, the Ferrari junior fastest by 0.085s with a 2m05.401s.
Having topped practice earlier, Slater found time to climb to the top, benefiting from a tow from his championship rival Ugo Ugochukwu, setting a 2m05.150s.
His teammate Stromsted was the next improvement but the Danish driver couldn’t match Slater’s pace, ending up fourth overall with a 2m05.518s.
Drivers continued to struggle in the greasy conditions, Hitech’s Fionn McLaughlin very nearly finding the wall at turn 9 having run wide into the gravel.
With 10 minutes of the session remaining and rain easing the track became alive with F3 machinery once more with drivers searching for a tow down the Kemmel straight.
The antics continued on their second warm up lap and down into turn 12 with the field bunching up, no one wanting to head the pack.
As the field streamed out of turn 11 Stromsted found himself caught out by the tightly packed field, rear-ending Jose Garfias who in turn sent the Trident driver into the side of AIX’s Yevan David.
Behind, Yamakoshi hit a DAMS while taking avoiding action with all drivers involved eliminated on the spot, apart from Garfias who recovered to the pitlane.
The session was red-flagged and would not resume due to a lack of time. That benefited Slater as the British driver claimed a maiden F3 pole, leading Taponen and Yamakoshi who completed the top three.
Despite his incident, Stromsted led Campos’ Ernesto Rivera in fifth with Mattia Colnaghi behind the duo. For Saturday’s sprint race, Jin Nakamura secured reversed-grid pole ahead of ART’s Taito Kato.