Alpine junior Gabriele Mini secured pole position for the Monaco feature race after topping the fastest group in a split qualifying session.
Mini’s best time of a 1’23.942 was not only quickest for his group, but it was quicker than Christian Mansell’s best time from the second group.
That means that Mini will have the honour of starting from the head of the field for Sunday’s feature race, with Mansell alongside him on the front row.
Uniquely at Monaco, due to the 30-car field, qualifying was separated into two groups of 15-cars in an effort to reduce traffic and improve safety. The first group consisted of all even-numbered cars, while the second group was made up of the 15 drivers with odd numbers.
The first group therefore included four of the top five drivers in the championship, including leader Leonardo Fornaroli and second-placed Luke Browning as well as third and fourth-placed Gabriele Mini and Oliver Goethe. Fornaroli set the early benchmark of 1’25.963, with Browning two tenths behind in second place.
Browning then ramped up the pace to go easily quickest of all with a 1’24.230, with Mini the closest to him but still over three tenths slower. Mari Boya set a purple first sector time, but a mistake at the Swimming Pool ruined his effort.
Browning also whacked the wall at the exit of the Swimming Pool, breaking his right-rear suspension. Thankfully, he managed to recover his car to the pit lane without bringing out a yellow flag, allowing Mini to take the fastest time with a 1’23.942 to top the group ahead of Browning.
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The second group included the likes of Ferrari junior Dino Beganovic and Imola feature race winner Sami Meguetounif, as well as Red Bull junior Arvid Lindblad. However, before the second group of drivers could complete their first timed laps, the session was red-flagged as debutant James Hedley crashed into Sainte Devote.
The session eventually restarted with 10 minutes remaining, with Christian Mansell going quickest of all with a 1’24.921, narrowly ahead of Lindblad with Beganovic third. In the final minutes, Beganovic was four tenths up on Mansell through the middle sector, but as he rounded Anthony Noghes to complete his lap, he was met with a red flag for Charlie Wurz having crashed in Sainte Devote, effectively ending the session.
That meant that Mansell was the quickest driver in the second session, but as his time was slower than Mini’s best from the earlier…
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