George Russell took an excellent third pole position of the 2017 GP3 Series season after coming through a rain-affected qualifying session at Spa-Francorchamps on Friday.
The rain that affected the qualifying session for the FIA Formula 2 Championship meant that the session started in wet conditions, but the rain then ended, meaning the track conditions began to improve, and as a result the lap times tumbled.
ART Grand Prix drivers will share the front row, with Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team test driver Russell’s best of 2:27.042s ending up 0.274 seconds clear of team-mate and Honda protégé Nirei Fukuzumi.
After setting a lap that saw him briefly hit the top of the time sheets, Arjun Maini, part of the Haas F1 Team’s young driver programme, took third on the grid for Jenzer Motorsport, ahead of another ART Grand Prix in Jack Aitken, while DAMS driver Matthieu Vaxiviere, racing in only his second weekend in GP3, was an excellent fifth ahead of Trident’s Dorian Boccolacci.
Boccolacci’s team-mate Ryan Tveter was seventh ahead of Arden International’s Steijn Schothorst, while Campos Racing’s Julien Falchero and DAMS’ Tatiana Calderon completed the top ten.
The tricky conditions left the grid slightly mixed up, with Alessio Lorandi and Giuliano Alesi eleventh and twelfth respectively, while ART Grand Prix’s Anthoine Hubert, currently third in the championship, was down in seventeenth.
Spa-Francorchamps Qualifying Result
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