QUALIFYING: Fornaroli earns pole for Monza finale

Leonardo Fornaroli took his third Pole Position in Formula 3 and a crucial one in the title battle. The Trident driver finished up as the fastest in Group A, earning him the prime spot on the grid ahead of MP Motorsport’s Alex Dunne, who topped Group B.

Closest rival in the Championship Gabriele Minì will be close company on the grid, with the PREMA Racing driver winding up third, while Luke Browning, Arvid Lindblad, Dino Beganovic and Christian Mansell each missed out on a spot in the top seven places of the grid.

GROUP A

The even-numbered cars lined up to get on track first, including the top three in the Drivers’ Championship.

There was just one time on the board with just over five minutes to go, though Max Esterson’s 2:10.419 was not a push lap as everyone began to play for track position.

Contact between Laurens van Hoepen and Kacper Sztuka out of Lesmo 1 left debris on the track and both with damage, leading to a Red Flag. Both recovered to the pitlane but were left out of the running as a result of the incident.

The first segment resumed with five minutes to go and everyone else was straight back out onto circuit.

Esterson headed the queue without a tow and recorded the first proper lap to beat with a 1:40.558 but that was beaten immediately.

Luke Browning went quicker but his time was bettered by Mari Boya and Joshua Dufek, with the latter taking provisional top spot with a 1:38.832. Championship leader Leonardo Fornaroli wound up seventh on his first attempt, seven-tenths down on the time to beat.

The Italian reset and on his second and final effort, he recorded a 1:38.287 to go quickest of all while title rival Gabriele Minì moved himself up to second at the chequered flag ahead of the other Trident of Santiago Ramos in P3.

Having caught Esterson ahead before he could complete his second lap, Browning backed off and had time for one last attempt but could only manage seventh in the group.

GROUP B

The odd-numbered half of the grid followed suit in waiting before getting out on track for their first attempts.

ART Grand Prix were the first to blink and sent Nikola Tsolov and Christian Mansell out in front, with the rest of the pack trailing the pair out of the pitlane.

Mansell had overtaken his teammate but then backed off in hopes of gaining a tow as the clock ticked to three minutes remaining. With nobody obliging, the Australian headed up the train for the first attempts but backed off before he completed the lap as others followed suit.

Martinius Stenshorne wasn’t one of them though and recorded the first time to beat on a 1:39.273. That was beaten by fellow McLaren Driver Development talent Alex Dunne, who went provisionally quickest in Group B with a 1:38.818.

Everyone had time for one final attempt, but nobody could beat the MP driver’s effort, though no one was close to Fornaroli’s time from Group A.

Sami Meguetounif wound up second in Group B with Sebastián Montoya third for Campos Racing.

With the results aggregated together, Fornaroli will line up on Pole for Sunday’s Feature Race ahead of Dunne on the front row in P2.

Minì will go from third with Meguetounif in P4 on the second row alongside him. Santiago Ramos rounds out the top five, while Tim Tramnitz will go from reverse grid pole in the Sprint Race on Saturday.

The final Sprint Race of the season is set to get underway on Saturday morning at 09:30 local time.