France F3: Mercedes junior Vesti beats Hauger to pole

The Mercedes junior went quickest with a 1m50.882s with less than five minutes left of the 30-minute qualifying session, almost two-tenths clear of Hauger, who made a minor error on his last lap while attempting to take back pole.

MP Motorsport’s Victor Martins came in third, with Trident’s Jack Doohan ending up fourth ahead of MP Motorsport driver Caio Collet and teammate Clement Novalak.

Doohan was out on track first, leading the 30-strong pack around a very bunched up first lap.

ART Grand Prix’s Juan Manuel Correa managed to find space to take the first flying lap, but went wide and had to take the run off on the way down to Turn 3, forcing him round the bollards to return to the track the long way round. This caused a yellow flag as a large portion of the field were about to start their first fast laps.

His teammate Alexander Smolyar was the first to set a fast lap, with a 1m52.393s, before Vesti set a 1m52.395s.

But they were the only two drivers to set fast laps before there was a red flag eight minutes into the session after Prema Racing’s Arthur Leclerc came to a halt on the circuit with a locked front-left wheel.

The disappointed Ferrari Academy driver was unable to get the car going again and was pushed off the track by the marshalls, ending his qualifying before he was able to set a time.

The lights went green with 22 minutes to go, with the times then tumbling, with Hauger, Collet, Martins and Doohan all quickly breaking into the 1m51s.

By halfway through the session, the top 15 was separated by just one second.

This session sets the grid for Sunday’s feature race, while for Saturday’s sprint race, the top 12 will be reversed.

This will see Jenzer Motorsport’s Calan Williams start on pole tomorrow, with Trident’s David Schumacher in second and Charouz Racing System’s Logan Sargeant in third.

Correa, who was confirmed today to be rejoining the Sauber Academy, will start fourth, with Hitech Grand Prix’s Ayuma Iwasa in fifth.

Paul Ricard qualifying results:

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	7	Frederik Vesti	ART Grand Prix	1'50.882
2	1	Dennis Hauger	Prema Powerteam	1'51.063	0.181
3	17	Victor Martins	MP Motorsport	1'51.122	0.240
4	4	Jack Doohan	Trident	1'51.165	0.283
5	18	Caio Collet	MP Motorsport	1'51.187	0.305
6	5	Clement Novalak	Trident	1'51.213	0.331
7	8	Alexander Smolyar	ART Grand Prix	1'51.269	0.387
8	11	Ayumu Iwasa	HitechGP	1'51.484	0.602
9	9	Juan Manuel Correa	ART Grand Prix	1'51.503	0.621
10	29	Logan Sargeant	Charouz Racing System	1'51.525	0.643
11	6	David Schumacher	Trident	1'51.550	0.668
12	26	Calan Williams	Jenzer Motorsport	1'51.575	0.693
13	14	Matteo Nannini	HWA AG	1'51.613	0.731
14	3	Olli Caldwell	Prema Powerteam	1'51.648	0.766
15	19	Tijmen van	MP Motorsport	1'51.669	0.787
16	10	Jak Crawford	HitechGP	1'51.718	0.836
17	12	Roman Staněk	HitechGP	1'51.772	0.890
18	21	Lorenzo Colombo	Campos Racing	1'51.809	0.927
19	22	Amaury Cordeel	Campos Racing	1'51.929	1.047
20	27	Johnathan Hoggard	Jenzer Motorsport	1'52.051	1.169
21	30	Enzo Fittipaldi	Charouz Racing System	1'52.334	1.452
22	24	Kaylen Frederick	Carlin	1'52.453	1.571
23	25	Jonny Edgar	Carlin	1'52.453	1.571
24	15	Oliver Rasmussen	HWA AG	1'52.475	1.593
25	20	Pierre-Louis Chovet	Campos Racing	1'52.564	1.682
26	31	Reshad de	Charouz Racing System	1'52.795	1.913
27	28	Filip Ugran	Jenzer Motorsport	1'52.823	1.941
28	16	Rafael Villagómez	HWA AG	1'52.946	2.064
29	23	Ido Cohen	Carlin	1'53.023	2.141
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