Ferrari Academy Driver Dino Beganovic claimed his first Formula 3 pole position with a 1:46:431s in his second season with PREMA Racing.
Beganovic is the highest-placed returning driver looking to fight for the championship, drawing inspiration from his FRECA title win.
Putting two cars in the top three, Prema set the tone for the season as Beganovic snatched the provisional pole from Luke Browning and Christian Mansell.
Hitech Pulse-Eight’s Browning was named the man to beat after topping the practice sessions and testing times in Bahrain.
GB3 Champion Max Esterson initially clocked the fastest time in the early stages of the windy qualifying session with a 1:47:573s.
Leonardo Fornaroli followed in second with a 0.046s gap to the GB3 graduate before Esteron dropped down to 15th after exceeding track limits.
Fornaroli then topped the time sheet with a 1:47:141 after the man to beat surprisingly fell short with a 1:47:332 with less than ten minutes to go.
Less than two-tenths separated the top six in the early stages as track temperatures fell throughout the session but several drivers fell victim to track limits.
Sebastian Montoya suffered from a lockup during a flying lap going into Turn 8, while Charlie Wurz and Esterson faced deleted lap times that demoted them to the bottom of the grid.
Mansell was noted for an unsafe release from the pits, when sitting in 7th, but went on to qualify 8th in his ART after taking provisional pole for a moment before Beganovic snatched the place.
With three minutes to go to set the grid for the sprint and feature race, Browning powered through the circuit setting a purple first sector.
Mansell, Browning, and Beganovic engaged in a three-way fight for the pole position of the season, snatching purple sectors from one another.
Beganovic won out in the battle for pole – the PREMA driver set a time of 1:46:431s while Browning followed just 0.167s seconds behind.
Mansell was eventually dropped to eighth, pushed out of the top five by Gabriele Mini in third, Sami Meguetounif in fourth, Santiago Ramos in fifth, Leonardo Fornaroli in sixth, and rookie Tim Tramnitz in seventh.
Final Classification:
Beganovic
Browning
Mini
Meguetounif
Ramos
Fornaroli
Tramnitz
Mansell
Lindblad
Esterson
Tsolov
Van Hoepen
