F3 Austria: Hadjar takes pole in red-flagged qualifying

The Red Bull junior, who won the sprint race at Silverstone last weekend, took the top spot for Hitech with three minutes left of the session, setting a 1m19.759s.

Other drivers were on course to set their final lap times of the session before Zdanec Chovanec locked up at Turn 1, attempting to avoid the sausage kerb before running wide and coming to a stop, prompting the red flag.

The early ending left many drivers unable to improve, including championship leader Victor Martins (ART), who was forced to settle for second, less than 0.2s behind his compatriot.

Prema Racing’s Ollie Bearman took third, with team-mate Arthur Leclerc in fourth, the Silverstone feature race winner having led this morning’s practice session.

Jonny Edgar was first out the pits in his Trident-run car, heading out for qualifying in his second race weekend back after illness.

Martins was first to top the timesheet, setting a 1m19.980s on his maiden attempt as the only driver to break the 1m20s barrier.

Bearman went straight into second, less than 0.1s behind, while Kaylen Frederick was third for Hitech.

Isack Hadjar, Hitech GP (Photo by: FIA F3)

The yellow flags were waved briefly 10 minutes into the session after Chovanec stopped right at the pit entry in a bizarre incident for which he will be investigated after the session.

Leclerc moved up from seventh to third on his next attempt, with a 1m20.100s demoting Frederick.

The field dived into the pits, re-emerging with seven minutes left on the clock and causing traffic around the final corner as they jostled for position.

With three minutes remaining, Hadjar snatched the top spot, demoting Martins and Bearman to their final positions before Chovanec’s off ended the session with two minutes left.

Moments earlier, ART’s Gregoire Saucy also ran off into the gravel trap.

Frederick took fifth place, with Trident’s Roman Stanek in sixth and Edgar in seventh. Zane Maloney (Trident), Van Amersfoort Racing’s Franco Colapinto and Jak Crawford (Prema) rounded off the top 10.

MP Motorsport’s Caio Collet will start on pole for Saturday’s reverse-grid sprint race, with Juan Manuel Correa in second for ART and Crawford in third.

Bearman faces an investigation for an unsafe release involving Carlin’s Zak O’Sullivan, while David Vidales will be investigated for erratic driving during the final dash to the line.

F3 Austria: Full qualifying result

Cla	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Interval
1	Isack Hadjar	HitechGP	1'19.759
2	Victor Martins	ART Grand Prix	1'19.980	0.221	0.221
3	Oliver Bearman	Prema Powerteam	1'20.058	0.299	0.078
4	Arthur Leclerc	Prema Powerteam	1'20.069	0.310	0.011
5	Kaylen Frederick	HitechGP	1'20.134	0.375	0.065
6	Roman Staněk	Trident	1'20.178	0.419	0.044
7	Jonny Edgar	Trident	1'20.199	0.440	0.021
8	Zane Maloney	Trident	1'20.290	0.531	0.091
9	Franco Colapinto	Van Amersfoort Racing	1'20.297	0.538	0.007
10	Jak Crawford	Prema Powerteam	1'20.351	0.592	0.054
11	Juan Manuel Correa	ART Grand Prix	1'20.380	0.621	0.029
12	Caio Collet	MP Motorsport	1'20.421	0.662	0.041
13	Ido Cohen	Jenzer Motorsport	1'20.431	0.672	0.010
14	William Alatalo	Jenzer Motorsport	1'20.433	0.674	0.002
15	Zak O'Sullivan	Carlin	1'20.510	0.751	0.077
16	Alexander Smolyar	MP Motorsport	1'20.516	0.757	0.006
17	Enzo Trulli	Carlin	1'20.568	0.809	0.052
18	Gregoire Saucy	ART Grand Prix	1'20.591	0.832	0.023
19	David Vidales	Campos Racing	1'20.607	0.848	0.016
20	Pepe Martí	Campos Racing	1'20.668	0.909	0.061
21	Reece Ushijima	Van Amersfoort Racing	1'20.747	0.988	0.079
22	Nazim Azman	HitechGP	1'20.782	1.023	0.035
23	Hunter Yeany	Campos Racing	1'20.859	1.100	0.077
24	Francesco Pizzi	Charouz Racing System	1'20.868	1.109	0.009
25	Rafael Villagomez	Van Amersfoort Racing	1'20.927	1.168	0.059
26	Kush Maini	MP Motorsport	1'21.098	1.339	0.171
27	Brad Benavides	Carlin	1'21.304	1.545	0.206
28	Federico Malvestiti	Jenzer Motorsport	1'21.370	1.611	0.066
29	László Tóth	Charouz Racing System	1'22.566	2.807	1.196
30	Zdenek Chovanec	Charouz Racing System	1'27.895	8.136	5.329
View full results