Zane Maloney has been credited with pole position in a confusing end to Formula 3 qualifying in which the chequered flag was shown too soon.
The morning’s practice session had been heavily interrupted, with three red flags limiting running and drivers setting no representative dry times on a very wet track as rain continued to fall. Ten drivers had ended the session in gravel, at various points and very little clear or meaningful running had been possible.
As a consequence, the first twenty minutes of F3’s half-hour qualifying session saw drivers take things gingerly, with drivers not pushing hard until the track began drying. With no option for intermediate tyres, all drivers went out on the full wets and early good times were in the 1’44 region, seconds off eventual pole.
Formula 3 teams are not equipped for rapid tyre changes, having no pit stops during its races, so drivers gambling on a switch to slicks had to time their changes perfectly.
But with just over five minutes to go the red flag was called after Arthur Leclerc beached his car facing backwards in the gravel at Rivazza. He had tripped over Enzo Trulli, who waited to run on slicks, finally going out on the wet tyres but had a total lack of grip. He said on the radio that he couldn’t do anything to have prevented the incident, which is being investigated by the stewards.
Isack Hadjar, who had been on a very fast lap before the red flag, initially set provisional pole as drivers posted their final times. However, he was beaten by first Gregoire Saucy, Roman Stanek and Zane Maloney, who appeared to finish the session on top.
Some drivers were shown on the timing screens to have taken the chequered flag on-track before the session time had expired – possibly due to confusion over the red flag. Teams appeared puzzled over whether to inform drivers to continue or stop, due to conflicting messages.
David Vidales and Ollie Bearman nearly collided through Rivazza, in a very similar incident to Trulli and…