Silverstone GP3: Albon tops qualifying in mixed conditions
ART driver Alex Albon was quickest in a rainy GP3 qualifying session at Silverstone, securing his first pole in his third round in the series.
Alexander Albon, ART Grand Prix
GP3 Series Media Service
With rain hitting the track during the first flyers, Campos duo Alex Palou and Konstantin Tereshchenko were the early leaders.
Although the Spaniard's time was disallowed due to track limits, Tereshchenko remained the leader when Kevin Jorg crashed and the session was red-flagged.
Once back to green, the field rejoined with most drivers already driving on slicks due to the rain having effectively stopped.
ART trio Leclerc, Alex Albon and Nyck De Vries comfortably locked out the top three with their first efforts, lowering Tereshchenko's benchmark by nine seconds.
Despite a lot of improvements, Leclerc was back in the lead with his next time, leading Palou by just one tenth.
The Monegasque pitted next time around and was immediately edged out by Arden duo Jake Dennis and Jack Aitken.
Ferrari junior Antonio Fuoco and then Jake Hughes both went fastest while most of the field was in the pits but Parry comfortably took the lead once back on track only to have his time deleted.
GP3 debutant Arjun Maini was next on top but Albon soon took over with Leclerc going second despite being blocked by Santino Ferrucci.
The championship leader tried to go past the American at a left-hander but the latter was unaware of him and the duo made small contact, which resulted in front wing damage for Leclerc and puncture for Ferrucci.
Ferrucci temporarily stopped on track soon afterwards, which prompted the red flag with just three minutes to go and, with rain starting to fall at the restart, there were no further improvements.
Albon's time of 1m47.348s ended up as the benchmark time of the session as a result with Leclerc taking second.
However, he will start the feature race from seventh thanks to a five-place grid penalty carried over from Spielberg.
Sandy Stuvik will form a Thai 1-2 with Maini making an impressive GP3 debut by securing third.
Matevos Isaakyan, Hughes and Fuoco will all gain a spot thanks to the Leclerc penalty to start fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.
Maini's sole teammate at Jenzer Akash Nandy took eighth but another grid penalty will force him out of the top 10 on the grid.
Nirei Fukuzumi, Ralph Boschung and Giuliano Alesi will round out the top 10 of the grid.
Qualifying results
Cla | # | Driver | Team | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 3 | Alexander Albon | ART Grand Prix | 9 | 1'47.348 | 197.559 | ||
2 | 8 | Sandy Stuvik | Trident | 10 | 1'48.290 | 0.942 | 0.192 | 195.840 |
3 | 20 | Arjun Maini | Jenzer Motorsport | 12 | 1'48.393 | 1.045 | 0.103 | 195.654 |
4 | 16 | Matevos Isaakyan | Koiranen GP | 13 | 1'48.539 | 1.191 | 0.146 | 195.391 |
5 | 27 | Jake Hughes | DAMS | 13 | 1'48.567 | 1.219 | 0.028 | 195.341 |
6 | 5 | Antonio Fuoco | Trident | 12 | 1'48.568 | 1.220 | 0.001 | 195.339 |
7 | 1 | Charles Leclerc* | ART Grand Prix | 9 | 1'48.098 | 0.750 | 0.750 | 196.188 |
8 | 2 | Nirei Fukuzumi | ART Grand Prix | 11 | 1'48.664 | 1.316 | 0.006 | 195.166 |
9 | 17 | Ralph Boschung | Koiranen GP | 12 | 1'48.674 | 1.326 | 0.010 | 195.148 |
10 | 7 | Giuliano Alesi | Trident | 12 | 1'48.749 | 1.401 | 0.075 | 195.014 |
11 | 14 | Matt Parry | Koiranen GP | 14 | 1'48.758 | 1.410 | 0.009 | 194.998 |
12 | 9 | Jake Dennis | Arden International | 11 | 1'48.831 | 1.483 | 0.073 | 194.867 |
13 | 18 | Akash Nandy* | Jenzer Motorsport | 12 | 1'48.658 | 1.310 | 0.090 | 195.177 |
14 | 11 | Jack Aitken | Arden International | 11 | 1'48.855 | 1.507 | 0.024 | 194.824 |
15 | 22 | Alex Palou | Campos Racing | 11 | 1'49.053 | 1.705 | 0.198 | 194.470 |
16 | 24 | Konstantin Tereshchenko | Campos Racing | 12 | 1'49.138 | 1.790 | 0.085 | 194.319 |
17 | 23 | Steijn Schothorst | Campos Racing | 12 | 1'49.358 | 2.010 | 0.089 | 193.928 |
18 | 10 | Tatiana Calderon | Arden International | 11 | 1'49.733 | 2.385 | 0.375 | 193.265 |
19 | 4 | Nyck de Vries | ART Grand Prix | 11 | 1'49.934 | 2.586 | 0.201 | 192.912 |
20 | 6 | Artur Janosz | Trident | 12 | 1'50.005 | 2.657 | 0.071 | 192.787 |
21 | 28 | Kevin Joerg | DAMS | 1 | ||||
2 | 26 | Santino Ferrucci** | DAMS | 12 | 1'49.269 | 1.921 | 0.131 | 194.086 |
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments