PREMA, Lindblad grab front-row start in tight Qualifying session
PREMA Racing had a two-sided qualifying session today at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, home to the fifth round of the 2024 FIA Formula 3 Championship.
Arvid Lindblad delivered a clean late lap time to secure second place and a front-row start for the feature race. The Red Bull Junior driver found his way through traffic to achieve another positive result in his rookie season.
Both Dino Beganovic and Gabriele Minì were prevented from doing the same, fighting within a pack of 28 cars covered by less than one second, and with very tight gaps. The Swede could not find the optimal chemistry with the car-tyre combination, while the Italian was impacted by traffic. As a result, they had to settle for P15 and P16 respectively as their starting positions for the two races.
#1 DINO BEGANOVIC
"We finished qualifying here in Barcelona in 15th. Overall, a tricky qualifying session after not being super happy this morning. We made a change on the car which felt good on run one, even though I made a mistake, getting into safety mode in turn 7, and got a lot of traffic in the last sector. I'm not sure why, but I didn't have the same feeling with the two other sets. With the last set, it felt like I did an okay lap, but it was not the same feel as before. We got some work for the races in trying to understand why the difference between the runs, and we need to limit the damage, thinking about the big picture."
#2 GABRIELE MINÌ
"It was not the Qualifying session we were aiming for, with only an eighth row position. We were quite strong on the first and second sets. In the first one, I caught a bit of traffic in the last corner, while with the second set it was not great but in the frame for the top-5. With the final set, we caught a lot of traffic during the warm-up lap to switch on the tyres. Not ideal, but it's what it is."
#3 ARVID LINDBLAD
"Overall, a very good session. I knew it was going to be really challenging. Everyone has tested here a lot and has the car in the window, and everyone knows the track very well. It was all about trying to be as close to perfect as possible, and mistakes were going to be super costly. I tried to be clean on each of the laps and build throughout the session. It started quite well, quite a decent first push. The second push was good as well but then I did a poor last sector, which put some pressure on the run with the final set. Then I delivered a clean tidy lap without any mistakes, which put me on the front row for the Feature Race on Sunday. I'm really grateful to the team for the job they have done and the car they gave me. We look ahead to fight in the races."