Browning "put it all on the line" enroute to second F3 pole

Written by Sean McKean

Credit - Formula Motorsport Limited

In a qualifying session mired with traffic and spotty weather, Hitech’s Luke Browning took his second FIA F3 pole position – his first since the illustrious Macau Grand Prix. This result continues an impressive form in qualifying, in which he has yet to qualify outside of the top ten.

In a press conference attended by DIVEBOMB Motorsports, however, Browning speaks on the times that could’ve been better, citing previous sessions as too “safe.”

“I think there’s a few places where we could’ve been on pole position but just didn’t quite extract the lap or really go for it at the end,” he said. “I think obviously in Formula 3, it’s easy to mess up and find yourself outside the top 12, so sometimes being a little more conservative, like for example in Barcelona, we would’ve been right there, half a tenth off. That wasn’t amazing, but it was safe.

“Here was the place where I put it all on the line, and it was rewarded. I knew it was going to be tough and I’d have to push on in the second sector without having a tow. And yeah, it paid off.”

Browning delivered his lap with less than two minutes remaining – the first driver to come across the line. Behind him it was chaos, as every driver queued up in a train in attempt to gain a slipstream down the long straights.

“I think no one wants to be in front in Spielberg qualifying, hence the massive train in warmup. But yeah, it got to the point where I came into T9 I was like, ‘Right, yep.’ Over the radio, my engineer said, ‘Mate you’ve got to go now, that’s it,’ so I was like ‘Okay,’ head down, and yeah I couldn’t believe it when I looked up at the screen after coming across the line and seeing it.”

As for tomorrow’s sprint race, Browning is confident in the package Hitech GP have brought, but the Williams junior is also aware that slipstream will continue to play a pivotal role throughout the races.

“It’s going to be tough. It’s probably the place where it’s least important to have pole position, historically, and we know that, but equally you can be in a better place, so we’ll see what our race-pace is like. We’ve tried to understand the degradation on this soft tyre the best we can. I think it’s going to be a tough graining phase but yeah out front in the cool air might help me.”

The sprint race will begin tomorrow at 09:30 local (08:30 UK).