Hitech Pulse-Eight’s Luke Browning took Pole position for Sunday’s Feature race during the F3 Quali Session at the 2024 Austrian GP. The Pole is the first of his Formula 3 campaign and marks the sixth driver on Pole this season. PREMA’s Arvid Lindblad and MP Motorsport’s Tim Tramnitz will start on Sunday in P2 and P3 respectively, followed by the second PREMA of Gabriele Minì rounding out the front two rows.
The Hitech Pulse-Eight of Martinius Stenshorne and Christian Mansell in the ART will start on the front for the Sprint tomorrow, classifying in P12 and P11 respectively.
Drivers were out on the Pirelli Soft tyres for today’s F3 Quali Session at the 2024 Austrian GP. The teams were eager to get a lap on the board on the high-degradation track. However, with 30 cars on track, traffic would be a huge issue around the Red Bull Ring. In a bid to avoid the penalty-laden racing of last year’s Austrian GP, gravel traps have also been added around the outside of the track corners.
As It Happened
The benchmark time was constantly changing as driver after driver posted a flying lap. Minì was the first to stay atop the times for more than a moment with a 1:21.013, before Tsolov, Meguetounif and Leon bettered the times to take P3 to P1 respectively. However, Minì was set on taking P1 back, setting a time of 1:20.869. Leon then sat in P2, 0.005s off the lead before snatching P1 back.
With just over 16 minutes to go, most of the drivers headed back to the pits to change to a new set of Softs. Charlie Wurz, who topped the times in the practice session in his home race, was the sole driver on track. While he managed to stay out of the gravel, his time was only good enough for P14. His second consecutive run looked promising to make it into the top 12 to take reverse grid pole. A mistake in the final sector meant he fell short and stayed in P14.
Meanwhile, Joseph Loake and Sergio Ramos were noted by the Stewards for an impeding incident. There was no further investigation.
The track was empty as the session ticked down into the final ten minutes. There were eight and a half minutes remaining when cars began to head back out on track for their final flying laps. Leon and Laurens van Hoepen were noted for an unsafe release as the cars exited the pits.
Rain Begins
However, it wasn’t as straightforward as the grid would have liked, with rain beginning to fall on the Red Bull Ring. The sense of urgency increased as drivers aimed to post a lap in case the track became undriveable.
Browning created a traffic jam of cars as he prepared for his flying lap. He did not want to give up the tow he could receive by letting another driver embark on their lap first. However, he was forced to take the hit, leading the pack down the main straight in a bid for Pole. The tow didn’t seem to affect him too much, as he posted a 1:20.222 for provisional pole with van Hoepen behind.
Minì, while improving on his previous lap, could only manage P2 before Tramnitz demoted him to P3. Lindblad was next to demote Minì and Tramniz, stealing the second spot on the front row just 0.084s off of Browning.
As the chequered flag was waved and drivers finished their final laps, Browning sat on Pole for the first time in Formula 3. He was followed by Lindblad and Tramnitz. Minì finished in P4 for the Feature race, ahead of Dino Beganovic and Oliver Goethe.
Marius Stenshorne took Pole for the Sprint race, beside Christian Mansell in P2. Nikola Tsolov will start in P3, followed by Alex Dunne and Sebastian Montoya.
Speaking after the Quali session, Browning said less was more today on track;
“I think there’s a couple of places where we could have been on pole position but just didn’t quite extract the lap or didn’t really go for it at the end I think. It’s very easy to mess up and find yourself out of the top 12, so sometimes being a little bit more conservative, like for example Barcelona, you know, I think we would have been right there. A half tenth off, the lap wasn’t amazing, but it was safe, you know.
“Here was the place where I put it all on the line and yeah, it was really good, I knew it was going to be tough. Hitech did a great job and I’m looking forward to now hopefully putting it together in the race.”
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