Alpine Academy junior Gabriele Mini raced through the streets of Monte Carlo to claim a commanding second pole position in his rookie season in Formula 3. Setting a time of 1m 23.278s in the closing seconds of Qualifying, the Italian won Ferrari junior Dino Beganovic by more than six tenths.
F3’s debut in the Principality saw Qualifying split into two groups of 16 minutes each, with results aggregated between the two. Made up of even cars, Group A went first, with the fastest time going back and forth between Beganovic and new Williams junior Luke Browning.
Leaving just 0.003sec ahead to lead the first group as the checkered flag flew, the PREMA Racing driver had a nervous wait in pit lane to see if anyone in Group B could beat his benchmark of 1m 23.880s.
After topping practice from wet to dry on Thursday, Minì instantly pushed for first place, posting back-to-back fastest laps. However, his 1m 24.139s still trailed Beganovic, before a blistering last attempt by the Hitech Pulse-Eight driver snatched pole position from the Swede.
It will be two full Hitech/PREMA front rows, with Paul Aron securing third place ahead of Browning.
Caio Collet took third place for Van Amersfoort Racing, ahead of Sebastian Montoya, Gabriel Bortoleto and Franco Colapinto. Taylor Barnard and Leonardo Fornaroli rounded out the top 10.
Qualifying 12th overall, Gregoire Saucy will start Saturday’s Sprint Race from reverse grid pole. The lights go out at 1100 local time.
Read the full and detailed report on the Formula 3 official website.