Vesti beats Hauger to top FIA F3 qualifying at Paul Ricard

Photo: Formula Motorsport Limited

Mercedes junior Frederik Vesti topped the order in a disrupted qualifying session for the second round of the FIA Formula 3 season at Paul Ricard.

An incident early in the session for Arthur Leclerc brought out the red flags while most of the field were on their first flying laps.

While everyone except Leclerc was able to put in a flying lap, the disruption to running meant the track was even busier as everyone tried to find clear space for their run.

Prema’s championship leader Dennis Hauger set the pace when the first set of laps had been completed, with MP Motorsport duo Caio Collet and Victor Martins close behind.

The top three remained unchanged until the closing stages of the session when  ART Grand Prix’s Vesti jumped up the order, becoming the only driver to set a time sub-1m51s with a time of 1m50.882s.

Hauger found improvements on his second set of tyres but had to settle for second, 0.181 seconds behind Vesti.

Martins and Jack Doohan jumped up to third and fourth, knocking Collet down to fifth.

Cement Novalak and Alexander Smolyar took sixth and seventh ahead of late improver Ayuma Iwasa and Juan Manuel Correa.

In the battle for reversed-grid pole position, Lorenzo Colombo spend most of the session running in P12, but dropped down the order as others found improvements.

Calan Williams ultimately finished 12th to take pole position for race one. David Schumacher will line up alongside him with Logan Sargeant’s P10 overall placing him third on the grid.

Qualifying results