Photographer: Phil Hay
Dries Van Langendonck made it three poles out of three in treacherous conditions during Formula Winter Series qualifying at Barcelona.
The champion topped both sessions, with his fastest lap in qualifying one earning him race one pole, his second-best laptime putting him first on race two’s grid, and his unrivalled pace in qualifying two delivering pole for race three.
In Q1, the umbrellas were out as soon as the cars were wheeled out of the garages. The existing low visibility, combined with the spray produced by the 28-car field, meant the battle for pole was set by the drivers who could see where they were going.
It only took two minutes of action before red flags waved, then after the restart there was another four minutes before the first flying laps came in. Van Amersfoort Racing’s Thomas Bearman, the pace-setter in the previous days’ dry pre-event test sessions, set a 1m59.908s to go fastest.
A minute-and-a-half later, on his second lap, Rodin driver Van Langendonck posted a 1m59.070s that would go unbeaten. There was another red flag period later on, which lasted five minutes, and Bearman improved on his final lap to get within 0.232 seconds of Van Langendonck.
Rodin’s Ethan Lennon went third fastest, 0.884s off the pace, and the next two positions went to US Racing’s Ary Bansal and Rodin’s Alfie Slater. They were the last two drivers within two seconds of pole. Bansal’s team-mate Olexandar Savinkov, who is contending with him and Bearman to be championship runner-up, qualified seventh.
Despite not improving after his first flying lap, Van Langendonck broke the two-minute barrier two more times during the session to claim race two pole. His 1m59.252s put him 0.296s ahead of Bearman, with Lennon and Slater trailing by 0.773s and 1.494s respectively. Bansal was fifth, and Savinkov languished in 13th.
VAR’s Alexander Ruta, currently fifth in the standings and also mathematically in contention to be runner-up, was absent.
Q2 was free of interruptions, slightly drier and featured more of a battle for pole. Bearman laid down the first benchmark, a 2m00.967s which was swiftly beaten by a 1m59.390s from Bansal.
On his next lap, Bansal improved by 0.039s, then a minute after that Van Langendonck set a 1m59.140s to be fastest by 0.211s and secure pole.
Van Langendonck still had pace in hamd, lowering the pace to 1m59.045s and then 1m58.855s to end qualifying with a 0.459s gap to Bansal in second.
Lennon and Bearman were split by 0.044s in third and fourth, both over three quarters of a second off pole, and AKM Motorsport’s George Proudford-Nalder qualified fifth.
Cram Motorsport’s Samuel Ifrid was sixth, 0.914s slower than Van Langendonck, and Savinkov struggled again down in 20th place with a two-second deficit.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Dries Van Langendonck Rodin Motorsport 1m59.070s
2 Thomas Bearman Van Amersfoort Racing +0.232s
3 Ethan Lennon Rodin Motorsport +0.884s
4 Ary Bansal US Racing +1.176s
5 Alfie Slater Rodin Motorsport +1.601s
6 Timo Jungling Campos Racing +2.129s
7 Olexandar Savinkov US Racing +2.173s
8 Leon Hedfors Campos Racing +2.409s
9 Platon Kostin Van Amersfoort Racing +2.459s
10 George Proudford-Nalder AKM Motorsport +2.460s
Race 2 grid
1 Van Langendonck 1m59.252s
2 Bearman +0.296s
3 Lennon +0.773s
4 Slater +1.494s
5 Bansal +2.158s
6 Proudford-Nalder +2.292s
7 Levi Arn Jenzer Motorsport +2.421s
8 Kostin +2.567s
9 Hedfors +2.605s
10 Samuel Ifrid Cram Motorsport +2.730s
Race 3 grid
1 Van Langendonck 1m58.855s
2 Bansal +0.459s
3 Lennon +0.752s
4 Bearman +0.796s
5 Proudford-Nalder +0.885s
6 Ifrid +0.914s
7 Arjen Kraling US Racing +1.169s
8 Arn +1.348s
9 Slater +1.419s
10 Teodor Borenstein Jenzer Motorsport +1.592s