SHWARTZMAN SECURES FIRST EVER F3 POLE IN BARCELONA

PRESS RELEASE/FIA Formula 3 – Photo: supplied

Robert Shwartzman picked up where he left off in pre-season testing, chalking up the first ever FIA Formula 3 pole position in qualifying, at Barcelona, Spain. The PREMA driver’s time of 1:31.975 was set at the death, and saw him finish ahead of ART’s Christian Lundgaard and PREMA Racing teammate Marcus Armstrong.

No sooner had the drivers hit the track, were they hauled back into the pitlane, as Alessio Deledda came to a halt on track and brought out a red flag, succumbing to mechanical gremlins.

The drivers were soon back out on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and the times began to fly in, as a number of the thirty cars took a turn at the top. It was Simo Laaksonen who firstly got a go on provisional pole with a time 1:33.322, as Logan Sargeant landed P2 behind him, followed by Lundgaard.

PREMA would then pounce and claim both first and second place, with the quickest time now set at 1:32.597 by Shwartzman, followed by his teammate Jehan Daruvala. Armstrong was next to join the PREMA party, as he wrestled control of fourth place.

Laaksonen and Armstrong both put in strong laps as they looked to claim further places, but they couldn’t get close to the Ferrari Academy driver in P1, while Daruvala strengthened his positon in second by beating his own best time.

Lundgaard briefly succeeded in toppling the rampant Russian and broke up the PREMA one-two with a time of 1:32.083. It wasn’t to last though as Shwartzman upped his game and broke the 1m 32s barrier to land pole position.

With the Russian on pole and Lundgaard behind him, Marcus Armstrong set a blistering late time himself to steal P3, while Daruvala sealed a third top four spot for PREMA. Following that quartet were Sargeant, Laaksonen, David Beckmann, Max Fewtrell, Alex Peroni and Yuki Tsunoda.

Shwartzman will look to maintain first place tomorrow at 10.15am, when the drivers take to the circuit for the maiden FIA Formula 3 race.

	DRIVER	TEAM	LAPTIME	LAPS
1	Robert Shwartzman	PREMA Racing	1:31.975	11
2	Christian Lundgaard	ART Grand Prix	1:32.083	11
3	Marcus Armstrong	PREMA Racing	1:32.427	11
4	Jehan Daruvala	PREMA Racing	1:32.529	11
5	Logan Sargeant	Carlin Buzz Racing	1:32.660	11
6	Simo Laaksonen	MP Motorsport	1:32.755	13
7	David Beckmann	ART Grand Prix	1:32.829	12
8	Max Fewtrell	ART Grand Prix	1:32.857	11
9	Alex Peroni	Campos Racing	1:32.863	12
10	Yuki Tsunoda	Jenzer Motorsport	1:32.875	11
11	Juri Vips	Hitech Grand Prix	1:32.876	13
12	Niko Kari	Trident	1:32.878	12
13	Pedro Piquet	Trident	1:32.880	11
14	Lirim Zendeli	Sauber Junior Team by Charouz	1:32.934	11
15	Richard Verschoor	MP Motorsport	1:32.949	12
16	Bent Viscaal	HWA RACELAB	1:33.010	11
17	Fabio Scherer	Sauber Junior Team by Charouz	1:33.022	11
18	Leonardo Pulcini	Hitech Grand Prix	1:33.103	11
19	Liam Lawson	MP Motorsport	1:33.150	13
20	Felipe Drugovich	Carlin Buzz Racing	1:33.313	12
21	Keyvan Andres	HWA RACELAB	1:33.430	11
22	Ye Yifei	Hitech Grand Prix	1:33.475	12
23	Sebastian Fernandez	Campos Racing	1:33.508	12
24	Devlin DeFrancesco	Trident	1:33.545	11
25	Raoul Hyman	Sauber Junior Team by Charouz	1:33.564	11
26	Artem Petrov	Jenzer Motorsport	1:33.714	13
27	Andreas Estner	Jenzer Motorsport	1:33.962	13
28	Teppei Natori	Carlin Buzz Racing	1:34.054	11
29	Jake Hughes	HWA RACELAB	1:34.173	11
30	Alessio Deledda	Campos Racing	—	—

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