The Carlin team dominated proceedings in first qualifying of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship at the 5.793 kilometres long Grand Prix circuit of Monza.
Rookie Jehan Daruvala (Carlin, 1m44.105s), a protégé of the Force India Formula 1 team, secured his maiden FIA Formula 3 European Championship pole position ahead of his team-mate, McLaren junior driver Lando Norris (Carlin, 1m44.135s) and Jake Dennis (Carlin, 1m44.202s).
Behind Callum Ilott (Prema Powerteam, 1m44.370s), Ferdinand Habsburg (Carlin, 1m44.552s) followed as the fourth Carlin driver in fifth place. Joel Eriksson (Motopark, 1m44.554s), who came to Italy as the leader in the drivers’ standings, was classified sixth in the first qualifying of the Monza weekend.
At the Italian circuit near Milan, the youngsters from the FIA Formula 3 European Championship staged a thrilling qualifying. Just before the end of the session, Callum Ilott was on top, but the British driver of the Italian Prema Powerteam wasn’t able to hold on to this position until the end.
In the final moment, two rookie drivers moved up ahead of the stalwart. Ilott is one of three drivers who already were present when the FIA Formula 3 European Championship last raced at Monza in 2015. On his final flying lap, Jehan Daruvala was 0.030 seconds faster than Lando Norris, which made the Indian secure his maiden Formula 3 pole position.
Austrian Ferdinand Habsburg completed the success for British team Carlin with fifth place, his best FIA Formula 3 European Championship qualifying result to date. Guanyu Zhou (Prema Powerteam, 1m44.922s), Jake Hughes (Hitech Grand Prix, 1m44.922s), Mick Schumacher (Prema Powerteam, 1m44.925s) and Joey Mawson (Van Amersfoort Racing, 1m44.996s) rounded out the top ten in a qualifying session that was briefly interrupted with the red flag after Harrison Newey (Van Amersfoort Racing, 1m57.543s) had spun.
Jehan Daruvala (Carlin): “I am really happy to have claimed my maiden Formula 3 pole position here. In free practice, I already had a good pace and the team made yet another step forward for qualifying. The first half of the session, prior to the scheduled pit stop, was relatively hectic for me.”
“Then, with six or seven minutes remaining, I headed back out again and first of all tried to find a good track position. Once I had managed to do so, I was able to get another two laps in. The first lap was okay, but the second one was really good. A good slipstream certainly helped me as well, something you need at Monza. Now, I am particularly looking forward to tomorrow’s race in which I will be able to start from first place on the grid.”