F3: Hadjar takes maiden pole in Austria
F3: Hadjar takes maiden pole in Austria. Isack Hadjar, a driver with Red Bull Junior, was able to clinch his maiden pole position in FIA Formula 3 by beating off his nearest competitors.
The Feature Race will begin with Oliver Bearman and Arthur Leclerc, both drivers for PREMA Racing, starting on the second row, with the current leader of the championship, Victor Martins, starting alongside his fellow compatriot on the front row.
The first round of laps took a bit to come through as drivers protected their soft Pirelli tires from the heat in Austria, but it was Martins that led the pack, edging over Bearman by only 0.078 seconds to take the lead.
When practically the whole F3 grid was jammed onto the straight between Turns 3 and 4, looking for track position and a slipstream, it was plainly evident how valuable a tow can be. However, the Hitech of Hadjar had timed his sprint to perfection and was now up ahead.
He took provisional pole position by beating Martins’ time in the final few minutes of the practice, which was only a difference of 0.014 seconds. Hadjar was able to position himself two tenths ahead of everybody else by completing a second flying lap in the dying minutes of the race thanks to the fact that he started the race early.
Turn 1
After a late red flag was waved for the stalled Charouz Racing System car driven by Zdenek Chovanec, who had come to a stop on the exit of Turn 1, those who were behind him wouldn’t get the opportunity to respond to the race leader, who was in the pole position. The red signal, which indicated that there were less than two minutes left in the session, prevented it from being restarted.
In row two, behind Bearman and Leclerc, Frederik narrowly edged out Roman Stanek to claim fifth place. After them, the remaining slots in the top 10 were filled by Jonny Edgar, Zane Maloney, Franco Colapinto, and Jak Crawford, respectively.
After finishing in position 12 in the qualifying session, Caio Collet will start Saturday’s Sprint Race from the pole position in the reverse grid.