Dennis Hauger secured his second FIA Formula 3 Championship pole of the season today at Red Bull Ring. As expected, the short Austrian venue featured an incredibly tight pack with the top-5 covered by just one-tenth of a second. Driving for PREMA Racing, the Norwegian made the most of his second set of new tyres, despite an untimely red flag and weather concerns, and laid down a stunning flying lap with just seconds to go on the clock.
Traffic turned out to be a major factor in qualifying. Olli Caldwell and Arthur Leclerc featured in the top-10 by ending up in P8 and P9 respectively. The British racer, who lost his initial laptimes to track limits, made a good progression in the end while the Monegasque continued to show potential despite being only at his third FIA F3 event. Both performed extremely well in the previous reverse-grid races and they are now looking forward to another smooth run to keep their momentum strong.
#1 Dennis Hauger
“A bit of a messy qualifying overall but we took pole nonetheless. There was so much happening, especially in the last run with the red flag after warming up the tyres, and the few drops of rain that started to fall. In the end, we managed to do a good lap and end up at front. Obviously, there is still a long weekend ahead, but it was definitely a good start.”
Qualifying: P1 Fastest lap: 1'19"726
#2 Arthur Leclerc
“It was a tough qualifying, as it was difficult to manage the traffic. I think the pace was good, but I made a small mistake in what was going to be my best lap. However, the weekend is not finished, so we will try to come back in the races.”
Qualifying 1: P9 Fastest lap: 1'19"975
#3 Olli Caldwell
“It has been a messy qualifying for sure. At the start I got my lap times deleted due to track limits in turn 10 which I didn’t expect as I was not doing anything different to free practice this morning, but the pace was there and I’m sure there is the potential to do well in the races. Traffic is not easy to manage here and the red flag plus the fact of having such a close group certainly make every little detail count a lot. We will try to maximize our results with our starting position tomorrow.”
Qualifying 1: P8 Fastest lap: 1'19"900
