Formula 3

Doohan Takes Pole To Set Up Thrilling Championship Finale

2 Mins read
Image Credit : FIA Formula 3

Jack Doohan kept his title hopes alive by taking pole, and the four points that come with it, to set up a potentially thrilling championship finale with championship leader and rival Dennis Hauger only qualifying in ninth.

Doohan took his second pole of the season ahead of his Trident teammate, Clément Novalak. The Frenchman would settle for a place on the front row ahead of Jonathan Hoggard both of whom achieving their best qualifying in FIA Formula 3 to date.

Meanwhile, news broke during the session the first race of the weekend which would usually be held on a Saturday morning had been brought forward to Friday due to the uncertain weather forecast for the night and the morning.

By the time the drivers had a go at qualifying the track temperature had doubled to thirty-three degrees and the track had evolved due to the fact that all three of Formula 3, FIA Formula 2 and Formula 1 using the track this weekend.

Trailing Hauger in the Drivers’ standings by 43 points with three races to go, it was imperative that Doohan got pole position to ensure that the Australian would get the best run down to turn 1 but a red flag would interrupt his attempt at setting the fastest lap.

There was a rare wide moment from Hauger when action resumed, with the PREMA Racing driver struggling to warm up his rubber -something which has been a bit of a recurring theme for the Italian team in the last few races. That was good news for Doohan, who made the most of his times setting a lap time of 1:54.927.

After a quick pitstop for fresh new tyres, the Australian would improve once again to put no doubt in anyone’s mind about who was the fastest driver this time setting a time of 1:54.514.

Hoggard then slid into position ahead of Frederik Vesti and into third for what could potentially be his highest ever starting position, as everyone set off for one final lap of the Sochi Autodrom.

Perhaps surprisingly, there were very few improvements in the dying stages, but the pecking order was updated after the chequered flag. That put Doohan atop the time-sheets, with, Novalak was second ahead of Hoggard and Vesti. Juan Manuel Correa was impressive and notched his best Qualifying result to date in fifth place ahead of previous race-winner Lorenzo Colombo and home hero Alex Smolyar.

The man who was fastest in practice : Caio Collet was eighth ahead of Hauger, who managed to claw his way into the top tenth after a decent lap in the latter stages of the session. Jak Crawford was 10th, ahead of Logan Sargeant and Victor Martins who will start race 1 on pole position.

PositionDriverNationTeamTime
1Jack DoohanAUSTrident1m54.514
2Clement NovalakFRATrident1m54.648
3Johnathan HoggardGBRJenzer Motorsport1m54.687
4Frederik VestiDENART Grand Prix1m54.712
5Juan Manuel CorreaUSAART Grand Prix1m54.755
6Lorenzo ColomboITACampos Racing1m54.759
7Aleksandr SmolyarRUSART Grand Prix1m54.765
8Caio ColletBRAMP Motorsport1m54.722
9Dennis HaugerNORPrema Racing1m54.826
10Jak CrawfordUSAHitech Grand Prix1m54.853
11Logan SargeantUSACharouz Racing System1m54.859
12Victor MartinsFRAMP Motorsport1m54.959
13Roman StanekCZHHitech Grand Prix1m54.977
14Arthur LeclercMONPrema Racing1m55.089
15Olli CaldwellGBRPrema Racing1m55.151
16Oliver RasmussenDENHWA Racelab1m55.166
17David SchumacherGERTrident1m55.228
18Ayumu IwasaJPNHitech Grand Prix1m55.302
19Matteo NanniniITAHWA Racelab1m55.419
20Armaury CordeelBELCampos Racing1m55.466
21Calan WilliamsAUSJenzer Motorsport1m55.503
22Kaylen FrederickUSACarlin1m55.680
23Rafael VillagomezMEXHWA Racelab1m56.007
24Filip UgranROMJenzer Motorsport1m56.263
25Tijmen van der HelmNEDMP Motorsport1m56.525
26Ayrton SimmonsUSACharouz Racing System1m56.527
27László TóthHUNCampos Racing1m56.600
28Ido CohenISRCarlin1m57.029
29Zdeněk ChovanecPORCharouz Racing System1m57.164
30Jonny EdgarGBRCarlin2m24.507
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