Colapinto captures first pole of 2022 F3 season

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Franco Colapinto captured the first pole position of the 2022 season in the FIA Formula 3 Championship yesterday as part of the F1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix at Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir.

The Van Amersfoort Racing driver from Argentina had a best lap time of one minute 46.249 seconds in qualifying. Colapinto will be starting the weekend’s 23-lap Feature Race tomorrow from the front.

He won the leading grid position by a mere 0.065 seconds ahead of Czech Roman Stanek of Trident, who had earlier in the day set the pace in practice. India’s Kush Maini competing for MP Motorsport qualified a close third 0.073s behind.

The ART Grand Prix trio of Gregoire Saucy, Victor Martins and Juan Manuel Correa will start in fourth through sixth position, while completing the first 10 on the grid for tomorrow’s feature are Zane Maloney of Trident, Alexander Smolyar of MP Motorsport, Isack Hadjar of Hitech Grand Prix and David Vidales of Campos Racing.

Oliver Bearman of Prema Racing will start 11th and Zak O’Sullivan of Carlin 12th from the grid of 30. As per F3 rules, O’Sullivan will be on pole for today’s 20-lap Sprint Race, which is scheduled for a 12.45pm start.

The top 12 from qualifying will be reversed for the Sprint. In practice yesterday, Stanek clocked a best lap of 1:48.012 in the 45-minute session.

Arthur Leclerc from Monaco, younger brother of Ferrari F1 ace Charles Leclerc, finished second with a time of 1:48.090 in his Prema Racing challenger, while Saucy came third in 1:48.099. Rounding off the top eight were Hadjar, Colapinto, Bearman, Crawford and Rafael Villagomez for Van Amersfoort.