QUALIFYING: Mansell beats Lindblad to take last gasp pole position in Barcelona

Christian Mansell is set to start Formula 3’s 100th race from Pole Position after he beat PREMA Racing’s Arvid Lindblad to top spot in a dramatic Barcelona Qualifying.

The ART Grand Prix driver set a 1:28.463 on his final attempt in the session to take his maiden Pole in the category, with Lindblad ending up second just 0.036s off the pace, while Mansell’s teammate Nikola Tsolov was third.

After the first set of laps, it was the third ART driver Laurens van Hoepen who went fastest. The Dutchman’s time of 1:29.187 saw him beat Trident’s Leonardo Fornaroli to top spot by less than a tenth.

The drivers then returned to the pitlane and strapped on a second set of the Pirelli Hard tyres in preparation for the next set of push laps.

As they crossed the line to complete the second flying efforts it was Luke Browning that went fastest with a 1:28.888. Home favourite Mari Boya went closest to beating his time, with the Campos Racing driver just 0.006s off top spot.

The drivers pitted one last time for another set of tyres with the top 17 drivers all within half a second of Browning’s pace-setting time.

On the final runs, the fastest effort changed hands multiple times before Mansell eclipsed Lindblad’s time by just 0.036s, with his lap of 1:28.463 giving him his first Formula 3 Pole Position.

ART teammate Tsolov took P3 ahead of Browning with Oliver Goethe the lead Campos in P5. Fornaroli wound up P6 ahead of Hitech Pulse-Eight’s Martinius Stenshorne, with van Hoepen in eighth.

MP Motorsport’s Alex Dunne ended up in P9 ahead of the Campos pair of Sebastián Montoya and Mari Boya, with Sami Meguetounif in P12.

This means the Trident driver will start tomorrow’s Sprint Race from reverse grid pole, which is set to take place at 10:40 local time.