Stanek snatches F3 pole from Martins at chequered flag

Roman Stanek has taken Formula 3 pole around Barcelona with a late run that saw him set the best time at the chequered flag.

F3’s practice session had been uninterrupted, with Victor Martins looking confidently ahead of the pack in the times. Arthur Leclerc and Stanek had been second and third fastest, respectively.

With 30 cars out on track for qualifying there were almost immediate queues at the final chicane, as soon as drivers started their flying laps.

Caio Collet held the fastest time for the first half of the session, after Martins’ initial run had been slightly interrupted by a pit lane incident that nearly saw him in an unsafe release. However, times began falling dramatically in the second half of the session and Martins claimed the top spot with a 1’33.568, Alexander Smolyar within half a tenth slower in second.

Drivers all went back into the pits with ten minutes to go or final adjustments before heading back out with six and a half minutes to go, Isack Hadjar leading the pack away.

The traffic situation got no better, cars going three wide on warm up laps while trying to find a gap. Enzo Trulli, in particular, took a risky outside line in the middle sector to put himself second in the queue, behind Leclerc.

Drivers finally got away with two minutes to go and despite the rapid evolution of the track for their second runs, none were able to best Martins’ time. At the chequered flag, however, Roman Stanek – who had been largely anonymous for most of the session – managed to beat Martins’ time to set a 1’33.516.

Alexander Smolyar was third fastest, with Hitech rookie Isack Hadjar set to start fourth on the grid. Leclerc was forced to settle for fifth, being at the head of the qualifying pack proving no advantage in the final runs. Oliver Bearman, Collet, Kaylen Frederick and Jak Crawford made up the lower half of the top ten, with Juan-Manuel Correa returning from missing the Imola round due to a foot fracture taking tenth and securing himself a second-row start for the partially-reversed sprint grid.

Zane Maloney, already in a bad situation after missing the weighbridge when called in early in the session and so facing a likely disqualification, went flying over kerbs on his final lap. He held the car on track but was unable to improve his time. He qualified 12th, putting him on pole for the sprint race, pending any penalty, with 11th-fastest Spanish driver David Vidales set for a sprint race front row start alongside him.

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Formula 3 Spain qualifying results

Position	Car	Driver	Team
1	2	Roman Stanek	Trident
2	7	Victor Martins	ART
3	11	Alexander Smolyar	MP
4	18	Isack Hadjar	Hitech
5	4	Arthur Leclerc	Prema
6	6	Oliver Bearman	Prema
7	10	Caio Collet	MP
8	17	Kaylen Frederick	Hitech
9	5	Jak Crawford	Prema
10	9	Juan Manuel Correa	ART
11	20	David Vidales	Campos
12	3	Zane Maloney	Trident
13	29	Franco Colapinto	HWA
14	8	Gregoire Saucy	ART
15	1	Oliver Rasmussen	Trident
16	22	Pepe Marti	Campos
17	31	Reece Ushijima	HWA
18	30	Rafael Villagomez	HWA
19	26	Zak O’Sullivan	Carlin
20	21	Hunter Yeany	Campos
21	25	William Alatalo	Jenzer
22	15	Lirim Zendeli	Charouz
23	12	Kush Maini	MP
24	19	Nazim Azman	Hitech
25	23	Ido Cohen	Jenzer
26	28	Enzo Trulli	Carlin
27	24	Federico Malvestiti	Jenzer
28	27	Brad Benavides	Carlin
29	16	Francesco Pizzi	Charouz
30	14	Laszlo Toth	Charouz

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