R02 Melbourne - FIA Formula 3 Qualifying Report
PREMA Racing delivered solid results in Qualifying for the second round of the FIA Formula 3 Championship in Melbourne. Gabriele Minì and Dino Beganovic were both in the fight for pole at the Albert Park venue, ending up second and third at the end, respectively.
With the session getting interrupted during the runs on the second set of tyres, and Minì narrowly escaping the crash, everyone had one last attempt at the end, and a tight battle for pole saw the Italian end up less than 0.02s of a second away from P1. Beganovic was also in the mix as he set the third-fastest lap securing positive starting positions for both races.
Arvid Lindblad continued to impress as a rookie and delivered a positive seventh place. Not making any mistakes, he progressed in the laps available and set a promising lap time. He will have a chance close to the front in the first race of the weekend with good opportunities coming his way.
#1 DINO BEGANOVIC
"P3 in Melbourne, it's a good result to come away with after not having a perfect lap during the session and just having one last lap to make the difference. I'm happy with it, it's all it was left in the bag but I'm fine with P3. We can definitely race from here, it's a good starting position for Sunday and also for tomorrow's race. It will bring plenty of opportunities and I'm looking forward to that."
#2 GABRIELE MINÌ
"It was not a bad session of course. We were never lower than P2 already with the pushes on the first set. I came back out with the second set and I managed to get a competitive lap time. Of course, it was not ideal to have the crash right in front of me, so I had to lift a bit. After that, we only had one push lap. The pressure was on as you have only one lap that matters and everything is improving. We had to do the best we could and I think we managed to do it quite well. A bit of a shame that we are only in P2, but we achieved the goal for the season to stay consistently at the front."
#3 ARVID LINDBLAD
"In general, quite a decent session. I got the first taste of F3 at this track without any testing, and I knew it was going to be quite difficult to focus a lot in practice and then try to make the step. I was improving throughout the session, improving in each lap. It was a bit difficult with the red flag towards the end, which put a lot of pressure on the final lap, but I did a decent lap without mistakes. P7 is a decent position for both races. We look ahead, analyze it from today, and try the best we can in the two races."