PREMA faces changing weather in tough Silverstone Qualifying
The FIA Formula 3 Championship Qualifying session was heavily affected by rain today at Silverstone, as PREMA Racing faced changing conditions and eventually missed out on a last qualifying lap, which turned out to be the fastest on an almost completely dry track, after electing to put on an additional set of new tyres.
Arvid Lindblad was able to deliver a positive lap despite his position on the track meant that he had to deal with sub-optimal conditions. He was the best-placed PREMA driver in P11 and will start tomorrow’s Sprint Race from the front row.
On the other hand, Gabriele Minì and Dino Beganovic finished in P14 and P19 respectively as, with a rapidly drying track, they could not maximize the situation despite having shown impressive potential. They will start from the same positions in the two races.
#1 DINO BEGANOVIC
"Tough qualy in Silverstone. I think everything that we could do wrong, we did wrong today. In the first lap, I made a track limits violation. Suddenly, I got the call that it was raining, and we didn’t have a lap time on the board. I tried to push for the next one, but we decided to box for another set. It started raining more, so we just waited. Then towards the end, we didn't think that it was going to dry up so much, but it did. We kept the same tyres going out instead of using a new set, and pushed for three laps in a row. That was also not the best because the track was the best in the last lap, and by then, the tyres were completely finished. The speed was definitely there. It was a mistake on my side not to have a lap on the board, and we also did not make the right calls. The car was definitely competitive, it has been a shame not to exploit it."
#2 GABRIELE MINÌ
"Qualifying was not what we wanted at all. We were in the top 3 for the whole time while it was raining, and we were quite safe. In the end, it fully dried up very quickly, and we made so many laps on the same set of tyres, but we were not up to temperature for the last lap so I couldn’t really push too much. In the end, a lot of drivers went on new, and they could push, so we got beat by them. It’s a shame."
#3 ARVID LINDBLAD
"Really messy session today. With the weather and everything, it was really challenging for everyone. We tried to make the best out of the situation, but I’ve been a little unlucky with the track position, being the first one to have started the lap with the track still wet in sector one. It’s a shame because the car was extremely good today. I really think we could have been in the fight for pole, but we look forward to the races. It’s good to still be in the top 12. Thanks to the team, we’ll keep pushing."