Sochi F3: Points leader Shwartzman takes pole for finale

SMP Racing-backed Shwartzman didn’t appear to be in the fight for pole after the first flying laps, but after the initial runs were out of the way he challenged his Prema teammate Marcus Armstrong, who had set the fastest time in practice. 

Shwartzman led into the mid-session break after a stunning final sector, and then once back out on track he improved twice, narrowly retaking pole from his closest title rival Jehan Daruvala – in the third Prema – on the last flying effort.

Pole gives Shwartzman four extra points and means he only needs to finish fourth in the first of the two races of the weekend on Saturday to clinch the title, or fifth with two points for fastest lap. 

Daruvala hadn’t topped the session until after the chequered flag had fallen and was narrowly usurped by the series leader, meaning his deficit to the leader is 37 points with 44 on the table. 

Armstrong went out later than his teammates for the final run and almost didn’t make it back for a final push lap, compromising his cool-down lap to reach the chequered flag in time. He held on to third as others failed to improve on the last run.

Niko Kari was a threat for pole all session long and delivered fourth for Trident ahead of Renault Academy driver and ART Grand Prix racer Christian Lundgaard, who delivered a late flyer after a scruffy session before that.

HWA’s Jake Hughes complained of heavy traffic and being “blocked” on his earlier runs, but managed to finish sixth late on ahead of the Trident of Pedro Piquet and last year’s GP3 race one winner Leonardo Pulcini.

Pulcini’s Hitech Grand Prix teammate and Red Bull junior Juri Vips and ART Renault junior Max Fewtrell rounded out the top 10.

David Schumacher, son of Ralf and nephew of Michael, marked his competitive F3 debut with 25th for Campos Racing – 2.3s off Shwartzman’s pace – as he steps in to replace the injured Alex Peroni, who had a huge airborne crash at Monza earlier this month.

Hon Chio ‘Charles’ Leong was 19th and 4.5s off the leader’s pace on his F3 debut with Jenzer. 

Qualifying results:

Cla	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	Robert Shwartzman	Prema Powerteam	1'52.583
2	Jehan Daruvala	Prema Powerteam	1'52.775	0.192
3	Marcus Armstrong	Prema Powerteam	1'52.853	0.270
4	Niko Kari	Trident	1'53.191	0.608
5	Christian Lundgaard	ART Grand Prix	1'53.274	0.691
6	Jake Hughes	HWA AG	1'53.340	0.757
7	Pedro Piquet	Trident	1'53.349	0.766
8	Leonardo Pulcini	HitechGP	1'53.451	0.868
9	Jüri Vips	HitechGP	1'53.530	0.947
10	Max Fewtrell	ART Grand Prix	1'53.539	0.956
11	Felipe Drugovich	Carlin	1'53.550	0.967
12	Logan Sargeant	Carlin	1'53.643	1.060
13	Richard Verschoor	MP Motorsport	1'53.824	1.241
14	Bent Viscaal	HWA AG	1'53.842	1.259
15	Raoul Hyman	Charouz Racing System	1'53.877	1.294
16	Devlin DeFrancesco	Trident	1'53.882	1.299
17	Yuki Tsunoda	Jenzer Motorsport	1'53.938	1.355
18	Ye Yifei	HitechGP	1'53.943	1.360
19	Teppei Natori	Carlin	1'54.001	1.418
20	Sebastian Fernandez	Campos Racing	1'54.046	1.463
21	Lirim Zendeli	Charouz Racing System	1'54.112	1.529
22	Fabio Scherer	Charouz Racing System	1'54.145	1.562
23	Liam Lawson	MP Motorsport	1'54.557	1.974
24	Simo Laaksonen	MP Motorsport	1'54.757	2.174
25	David Schumacher	Campos Racing	1'54.889	2.306
26	Andreas Estner	Jenzer Motorsport	1'54.912	2.329
27	Keyvan Andres	HWA AG	1'55.068	2.485
28	Alessio Deledda	Campos Racing	1'56.251	3.668
29	Leong Hon	Jenzer Motorsport	1'57.166	4.583
View full results