Trident racing driver Rafael Camara secured pole position for the Formula 3 Feature Race in Spain, over two tenths quicker than Nikola Tsolov.
Camara clinched his fourth pole of the season, setting a new benchmark as the rookie now holds the record for the most pole positions in F3 history – achieved in just five rounds.
The Bulgarian of Tsolov qualified behind him in second, Laurens van Hoepen completing the top three in Barcelona for ART.
The final round of the European triple-header got underway with qualifying, following Camara’s fastest time in the earlier free practice session.
The championship leader finished the session three tenths quicker than Alessandro Giusti of MP Motorsport – home favourite Mari Boya was third for Campos Racing.
Qualifying master Camara on pole for F3 Spain Feature
In the opening minutes of the session, the 30 drivers fought for track position with multiple cars within close proximity of each other.
Camara set the quickest sector one time and initially held the fastest lap, but a mistake in the middle sector from the Brazilian allowed Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak to leapfrog him.
Shortly after, Tukka Taponen displaced the Campos driver at the top of the timesheets, while his ART team-mate James Wharton climbed into third place.
Tim Tramnitz’s first attempt was good enough for fourth before his lap time was deleted for track limits, the grid returning to the pits after their first runs.
Six drivers in total had their lap times deleted, including the Monaco Feature Race winner Tsolov.
With the second attempts fast approaching, the top five competitors remained Taponen, Inthraphuvasak, Wharton, Santiago Ramos, and Camara, as over half of the 30-minute qualifying period remained.
Tsolov finally set his first representative time, jumping up the order into fourth place, before others improved to knock him back down to 11th place.
Camara again lit up the first sector and built a gap of over half a second on Taponen’s benchmark by the middle sector.
He completed the lap with a 1:28.761s, going over three-and-a-half tenths clear of the Finnish driver to take provisional pole.
Van Hoepen edged into second place, ahead of the MP Motorsport duo of Giusti and Tramnitz.
After a final trip back to the pits, the grid returned for their final attempts.
Up first once again, Tsolov improved to go up to second place, still two tenths shy of Camara’s fastest lap.
However, no one came close to threatening his benchmark time, allowing him to comfortably secure another pole this season.
Tsolov and van Hoepen completed the top three order for Sunday’s Feature Race.
Theophile Nael snuck in with an impressive lap time at the end to take fourth place for Van Amersfoort Racing.
Ramos secured fifth on the grid, with Giusti in sixth, while VAR’s Ivan Domingues also delivered a late surprise to steal seventh place for the Feature Race.
Trident’s Noah Stromsted was eighth fastest, followed by Taponen and Tramnitz in ninth and tenth, respectively.
Martinius Stenshorne and Wharton rounded out the top 12, with the Australian driver earning reverse-grid pole for the Sprint Race.
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