After setting the fastest time (1:25.622) in the sole practice session earlier in the day, Campos Racing driver Nikola Tsolov carried that momentum into qualifying, securing pole position for the F3 Feature Race at the Monaco Grand Prix.
The Red Bull Junior driver delivered a lap time of 1:24.882 during Group A’s qualifying session, edging out Roman Bilinski, who laid down a time of 1:25.332, topping Group B and finishing in second place on the starting grid for Sunday’s feature race.
Group A
Due to Monaco’s tight and narrow street layout, the F3 qualifying session is split into two groups to avoid traffic chaos. Group A consisted of drivers with even-numbered cars and was the first 16-minute session on track. Tsolov wasted no time laying down his pace early in Group A, setting a 1:25.647 midway through the session. With seven minutes remaining, Rodin Motorsport’s Louis Sharp locked up and went into the runoff area before rejoining the session 30 seconds later.
As the clock ticked down, the lap times began to tumble. Noel Leon briefly went fastest, beating Tsolov’s time by 0.145 seconds, before Mari Boya went quicker, topping Leon’s time by another 0.22 seconds.
Tsolov then came across the line, setting a blistering 1:24.882, reclaiming the top spot by a comfortable margin of nearly six tenths over Charlie Wurz in second position.
Louis Sharp’s final lap put him in sixth position. A late yellow flag was brought out by Brad Benavides after he came into contact with the barriers at Turn 10. Boya came across the line to finish second in the group, just 0.127 seconds behind Tsolov, while Leon ended the session 0.504 seconds adrift.
The top ten for Group A were as follows:
Nikola Tsolov—1:24.882, Mari Boya, Noel León, Charlie Wurz, Tuukka Taponen, Martinius Stenshorne, Louis Sharp, Noah Strømsted, Ivan Domingues and Brad Benavides rounding off the top 10 for Group A.
Group B
Less than ten minutes after Group A concluded, the odd-numbered drivers took to the track for Group B’s session.
Nicola Lacorte locked up into Sainte Devote early into the session, spending over 30 seconds stuck in the runoff before managing to turn his car around and continue. As the drivers completed their warm-up laps, Tim Tramnitz set the first lap time of the session with a 1:25.868. Rafael Camara soon improved on Tramnitz’s time, with Callum Voisin jumping into second shortly after
With eight minutes to go, the top five stood as Camara, Voisin, Tramnitz, Bilinski, and Inthraphuvasak, with Giusti, Ugochukwu, Wharton, Van Hoepen, and Dufek rounding out the top ten.
Lap times began to drop rapidly with six minutes left. Giusti jumped to second, just 0.043 seconds behind Van Hoepen, before Voisin surged into first with a 1:25.359. Bilinski slotted into second, only 0.104 seconds behind Voisin. Ugochukwu then came across the line in seventh, 0.577 seconds off Voisin’s time.
Big Crash
With just over three minutes left on the clock, the session was red-flagged following a big crash by Prema’s Brando Badoer, who lost the rear of the car, crashing into the Turn 1 barriers. Badoer was out of the session, leaving his team with a major repair job ahead of the sprint race. After a five-minute delay, the track was cleared, and all drivers, except the now DNF’d Badoer, returned to the circuit for their final runs.
In the closing stages, Van Hoepen lost time in sector two on his last flying lap, resulting in his final lap not adding to the final timing sheet
As the chequered flag dropped, Camara jumped to third in the group. Bilinski, however, laid down a lap 0.027 seconds faster than Voisin, taking first in Group B with a lap time just shy of Tsolov’s Group A benchmark. Tramnitz then crossed the line, securing third in Group B.
Final Results
With no Group B driver able to surpass Tsolov’s time of 1:24.882 from Group A, the Campos driver secured pole position for the F3 Feature Race after the qualifying session at Monaco. Bilinski’s effort earned him second overall and a front-row start for Sunday after setting a time of 1:25.332. Van Hoepen will claim the sprint race pole position, hoping to capitalise on some points, particularly around a tight circuit that is notorious for being hard to overtake.
- N. Tsolov
- R. Bilinski
- M. Boya
- C. Voisin
- N. leon
- T. Tramnitz
- C. Wurz
- R. Camara
- T. Taponen
- L. Van Hoepen
- M. Stenshorne
- A. Giusti
- L. Sharp
- U. Ugochukwu
- N. Stromsted
- J. Dufek
- I. Domingues
- T. Inthraphuvasak
- B. Benavides
- C. Ho
- M. Zagazeta
- J. Wharton
- T. Nael
- B. Badoer
- B. Del Pino
- S. Ramos
- G. Xie
- N. Marinageli
- J. Hedley
- N. Lacorte (DQ)
