Trident racing driver Rafael Camara made history at Imola, claiming his third consecutive pole position for the F3 feature race, solidifying his standout form this season.
The Championship leader already took pole in Melbourne and Bahrain, as he will be joined by Santiago Ramos on the front row.
Trident team-mate Noah Stromsted completes the top three for Sunday’s Feature Race.
F3 returns for the third round of the championship at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari.
Camara set the pace in the earlier practice session for Trident ahead of the MP Motorsport duo of Alessandro Giusti and Tim Tramnitz.
The Brazilian racing driver already has a sizeable lead in the Drivers’ Standings, tasting victory in both of the season’s opening Feature races, each time from pole position.
Brad Benavides returns to the series with AIX Racing, with British rookie James Hedley joining the American at the team.
Camara on pole for Imola F3 Feature
Tramnitz set the early pace, replacing Ramos at the top in the Van Amersfoort Racing car.
It didn’t last long, though, as Camara quickly set the fastest time with a 1:32.909s, already quicker than his fastest lap from practice.
Prema Racing’s Brando Badoer, one of three Italian drivers taking part this weekend, set a lap time good enough for second as Tramnitz fell to third place after the initial runs.
Callum Voisin and Laurens van Hoepen were the only drivers yet to set a lap time with half of the session gone.
Hitech’s Martinius Stenshorne was one of the most notable title contenders further down the order, posting a lap time that only secured him 17th place on his first attempt.
On his return to F3, Benavides climbed up into seventh with his first lap.
After a short break in the pits, the grid came back out onto the track for their second runs.
Up first was Stenshorne, who missed out on provisional pole by just 0.019s before Tranmitz also marginally missed out on dethroning Camara at the top.
However, out of nowhere, the home favourite Badoer improved to pip the Trident driver’s lap time by just 0.015s.
Before he could retake his provisional pole, the red flag was called after Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak beached his Campos car in the gravel due to a snap of oversteer heading through Acque Minerali.
With 11 minutes left on the clock, the session soon resumed without the Thai racing driver.
After a couple of warm-up laps, Ramos was flying and setting the timing sheets alive, going fastest by four tenths with a lap time of 1:32.442s.
The top order changed significantly with ART’s Tuukka Taponen now second and Louis Sharp third for Rodin Motorsport.
Camara had dropped down to 14th due to the shift in order and with around two minutes left, the final drivers set their final laps.
Despite being down in the first sector, Camara incredibly went fastest in the second sector and finished the lap to take pole.
Stromsted recovered late on to snatch third place with the chequered flag bringing an end to the session.
Ramos will be on the front row for the second year in a row with the Mercedes junior Stromsted in third.
Taponen qualified in fourth, Sharp in fifth and Roman Bilinski climbed up the order late on to eventually take sixth in his Rodin car.
Prema duo of Ugo Ugochukwu and Noel Leon also improved with late attempts to take seventh and eighth, respectively.
In the end, Badoer finished in 15th after his earlier fight for pole in the session.
Title contender Nikola Tsolov qualified ninth in the end with his final lap, with his Campos team-mate Mari Boya in 10th.
Tramnitz ended the session in 11th place, with a front row start secured for Saturday’s race.
Finally, Bruno Del Pino will start the Sprint from pole after qualifying in 12th for MP Motorsport – Benavides ended the session in 14th on his return.
READ MORE – Rafael Camara claims second F3 Feature Race win in Bahrain
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