Brad Benavides claimed his first-ever Formula 3 pole position in a dramatic and unpredictable qualifying session at Spa-Francorchamps.
After an intense battle and several twists — including lap time deletions and reinstatements — the AIX Racing driver edged out championship leader Rafael Camara, while Callum Voisin pulled off a surprise third place.
The session was marked by significant track evolution and chaos in the closing minutes, leaving the grid tightly bunched but Benavides on top for the first time in his F3 career.
Mari Boya kicked off his weekend perfectly by topping the rescheduled Free Practice session at Spa with a time of 2:06.111s.
The Campos Racing driver went straight to the front on his very first lap as everyone scrambled to maximise the shortened 30-minute session.
Boya’s fastest lap time put him four tenths clear of team-mate Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak, giving the Spanish team an early one-two.
The practice session was moved to the original qualifying time slot after earlier foggy conditions grounded the medical helicopter.
As a result, qualifying was pushed to later in the evening, with Camara aiming to extend his 27-point advantage over Tim Tramnitz, while Nikola Tsolov sits 29 points behind the Trident driver.
Freddie Slater replaces Nikita Johnson at Hitech as the only change to the entry list for this weekend.
Camara on top in early stages of F3 Spa qualifying
With qualifying finally getting underway, after the Formula 2 session in the afternoon, 30 drivers headed out on track with the sun still shining.
After nearly 10 minutes into the session, the purple sectors started to arrive, with Ugo Ugochukwu stealing the fastest first sector time from Theophile Nael.
The American initially went fastest, but Camara soon responded with a quicker lap of 2:05.557s, shaving two tenths off Prema driver’s fastest lap time.
Several drivers — including Martinius Stenshorne, Noel Leon, Roman Bilinski, Sharp, and Boya — posted times fast enough to break into the top 12, only to have their laps deleted for track limits by the stewards.
As a result, Inthraphuvasak inherited third place, Tukka Taponen was fourth, and Tsolov fifth after the first runs.
Following a brief cooldown period for the tyres, drivers launched second attempts on the same set of tyres, shaking up the order once again.
Stenshorne stayed within the track limits this time around to improve to sixth, while Bilinski and Slater moved into ninth and tenth, respectively, squeezing into the top 10. Boya improved to 11th, but Leon had another lap time deleted.
Nael displaces Camara at the top to initially steal provisional pole
Inthraphuvasak improved but remained 0.190s off Camara’s best, while Alessandro Giusti made a surprise surge to third for MP Motorsport. Meanwhile, his team-mate Tramnitz languished down the order in 18th place.
Ugochukwu could only improve to fourth, with Tsolov climbing back to fifth, and Noah Stromsted entered the battle with a seventh-place effort.
While most drivers took a prolonged break to change tyres, Van Amersfoort Racing sent its drivers back out quickly.
Nael immediately surged to the top of the timing charts with a lap time of 2:05.508s, as Santiago Ramos followed closely behind.
He secured third place, just a tenth off his team-mate’s fastest lap, while Ivan Domingues rounded out the team’s strong showing by sneaking into the top 10.
As the rest of the grid returned to the track and settled into their warm-up laps, the running order began to shift dramatically.
Boya was the first to respond, reclaiming the top spot before a wave of chaos reshuffled the entire top 10.
The track evolved so dramatically that the Spaniard soon found himself down in 16th as others improved.
Benavides denies Camara pole amid dramatic final shuffle
Out of nowhere, Benavides snatched provisional pole with a 2:04.253s, edging out Camara, who could only go second.
In a shock twist, the Brazilian had his lap time deleted and plummeted to 23rd, as the grid bunched up ahead of the final runs.
Drama intensified when his lap time was reinstated, restoring him to second — a relief amid heavy traffic, with most of the field crawling to the line together in the closing moments.
Despite the scramble, no one was able to improve with the pack remained tightly bunched.
Amid the drama, Benavides claimed his first F3 pole position, with Camara in second and Voisin snatching an unexpected third place.
His Rodin Motorsport team-mate, Bilinski, took fourth ahead of Stenshorne in fifth, Ugochukwu sixth, Tsolov seventh, Inthraphuvasak eighth, Charlie Wurz ninth, Bruno del Pino 10th, Stromsted 11th and Slater taking 12th place.
The British driver will start the Sprint Race from reverse-grid pole with the Trident of Stromsted joining him on the front row.
Tramnitz couldn’t salvage his qualifying session and finished 13th, agonisingly short of a top-12 finish.
READ MORE — Mari Boya triumphs amid torrential rain to win Silverstone F3 Feature Race
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