The Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy talent Rafael Camara set the fastest time in Formula 3 qualifying to clinch pole position at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne.
Trident secured a front-row lockout with Noah Stromsted finishing in second and Theophile Nael in the Van Amersfoort Racing car qualified in third.
His team-mate Santiago Ramos finished 12th to secure pole position for the Sprint Race on Saturday.
The 2025 F3 season kicked off with Free Practice earlier as Camara set the fastest time ahead of the other 29 drivers.
This year signifies the beginning of a new era for the junior category, featuring a newly designed car to enhance driver development while prioritising affordability, safety, and sustainability.
In collaboration with Aramco, 2025 will also see the introduction of a 100% advanced sustainable fuel to be used throughout the championship.
Pirelli have brought larger 16-inch tyres for the upcoming season, aimed at helping the young stars learn to manage tyres in advance for Formula 2 and Formula 1.
This season, 13 drivers return after a full-length campaign in 2024, with MP Motorsport’s Tim Tramnitz being the highest-ranked driver from last year after finishing ninth in the Drivers’ Standings.
With plenty of rookies on the grid, a 30-minute session ensued to set the grid for both the Sprint Race and the Feature Race.
Roman Bilinski in the Rodin Motorsport car set the early pace with a 1:36.125s before Stromsted went 0.227s quicker to top the timing sheets early on.
Nikita Bedrin, who only found out he would be competing in the first round a week before the season opener, went fastest with a 1:35.873 for the AIX Racing team.
Campos’ Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak and Prema racing driver Ugo Ugochukwu went third and fourth, respectively, in the opening stages of qualifying.
Frenchman Nael went quickest with a lap time of 1:35.566s.
With just over 10 minutes to go, none of the three MP Motorsport drivers had set a representative lap time, which included Tramnitz.
The German racing driver set a 1:35.825s to take himself into the top five before Camara went over half a second quicker than Nael to take provisional pole with a 1:34.999s.
Stromsted matched the Brazillian with a fastest sector one but could only place his car in second, 0.129s off pole.
Charlie Wurz for Trident set a lap time good enough for sixth place with a lap time of 1:35.839s.
Prema’s Brando Badoer, coming out on Turn 1, lost the rear of the car on the astro turf, sending him spinning into the barrier and bringing out the red flag with just over five minutes to go.
With the session brought to a halt, there were notable absences from the top 10 included Laurens Van Hoepen in the ART Grand Prix car down in 17th and Campos’ Mari Boya all the way down in 24th.
As the session resumed, Nael suffered a huge blow as his team informed him that the cooler had been left on the car as he tried to limp back towards the pits.
Christian Ho brought out another red flag as he came to a stop in the DAMS Lucas Oil car with just over 2 minutes left in the session.
However, the stewards announced that qualifying would not be resumed as Camara followed up on his earlier pace in practice to take pole position for the Feature Race.
Stromsted finished second ahead of Nael in third after his late incident in the session did not prove costly.
Bedrin secured fourth, Tramnitz in fifth in front of Wurz in sixth place.
Inthraphuvasak ended in seventh place ahead of Ugochukwu in eighth.
Martinius Stenshorne qualified in ninth for Hitech, and Bilinski rounded off the top ten with Ramos securing reverse-grid pole for the Sprint Race.
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