Paul Ricard F3: Stroll secures maiden pole on drying track
Williams development driver Lance Stroll was quickest in the first qualifying session of the 2016 European F3 season at Paul Ricard.
Lance Stroll, Prema Powerteam, Dallara F312 - Mercedes-Benz
FIA F3 / Suer
Stroll, recording his first pole in the series, was the pace-setter in the second half of the session, which was run under drying conditions.
Having improved with every effort of his, the Canadian ended up in the lead, beating Prema teammate Nick Cassidy by 0.076s at the chequered flag.
Red Bull junior Niko Kari was the top rookie in third, edging out Hitech's British duo George Russell and Ben Barnicoat.
Mikkel Jensen was only seven thousandths of a second slower than Barnicoat but the Dane was also just ahead of Sergio Sette Camara and former Mucke teammate Maximilian Gunther.
The top 10 was rounded out by ADAC F4 runner-up Joel Eriksson and Carlin's Alessio Lorandi.
Qualifying results:
Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Gap |
1 | Lance Stroll | Prema Powerteam | 1:24.209 | |
2 | Nick Cassidy | Prema Powerteam | 1:24.285 | 0.076 |
3 | Niko Kari | Motopark | 1:24.429 | 0.220 |
4 | George Russell | HitechGP | 1:24.496 | 0.287 |
5 | Ben Barnicoat | HitechGP | 1:24.547 | 0.338 |
6 | Mikkel Jensen | kfzteile24 Mucke Motorsport | 1:24.554 | 0.345 |
7 | Sergio Sette Camara | Motopark | 1:24.590 | 0.381 |
8 | Maximilian Gunther | Prema Powerteam | 1:24.628 | 0.419 |
9 | Joel Eriksson | Motopark | 1:24.677 | 0.468 |
10 | Alessio Lorandi | Carlin | 1:24.907 | 0.698 |
11 | Ralf Aron | Prema Powerteam | 1:24.925 | 0.716 |
12 | Harrison Newey | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1:25.043 | 0.834 |
13 | Anthoine Hubert | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1:25.054 | 0.845 |
14 | Raoul Hyman | Carlin | 1:25.124 | 0.915 |
15 | Pedro Piquet | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1:25.130 | 0.921 |
16 | Guan Yu Zhou | Motopark | 1:25.166 | 0.957 |
17 | Ryan Tveter | Carlin | 1:25.206 | 0.997 |
18 | Callum Ilott | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1:25.381 | 1.172 |
19 | Nikita Mazepin | HitechGP | 1:25.739 | 1.530 |
20 | Arjun Maini | ThreeBond with T-Sport | 1:25.956 | 1.747 |
21 | Zhi Cong Li | Carlin | 1:28.083 | 3.874 |
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