Written by Sean McKean, Edited by Vyas Ponnuri
Credit - Formula Motorsport Limited
After a month-and-a-half wait, FIA Formula 3 returned for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix weekend, and it was Santiago Ramos who achieved pole position. It is the Mexican driver’s first pole position, not only of his F3 career, but also his single-seaters career.
As it unfolded
The session began rather processionally, as the first runs stayed clean. The ones on the pace immediately were Prema’s Gabriele Minì, joint-championship leader Leonardo Fornaroli and ART’s Laurens van Hoepen. There were some other surprises in the top ten from the beginning, with Trident’s Santiago Ramos sitting in seventh and Rodin’s Callum Voisin in ninth.
However, the latter wouldn’t be able to complete a second run. Coming out of turn two, the 2023 GB3 champion dropped a wheel on the grass and went for a spin in the entry of turn three. Since he was beached in the gravel, the red flag was brought out.
With many drivers remaining on their old tyres, few improved times were put on the board for the second run. But, Red Bull junior Oliver Goethe found massive improvement, jumping up to first overall, still ahead of Minì and Fornaroli. Luke Browning – one of the current championship protagonists – also managed to improve to fifth.
For the teams that didn’t switch tyres, they found space on-track for themselves, and it saw Fornaroli jump to first by a decisive margin. However MP Motorsport and freshly signed McLaren junior Alex Dunne found time too, rising to second by just over a tenth ahead of Goethe.
With nine minutes remaining, everyone went back out for a third run. As the times entered the board, it was Prema’s Arvid Lindblad who not only set his first official time of the session, but also jumped to the top, ahead of his teammate Dino Beganovic. This demoted Italian Leonardo Fornaroli into third.
However, many weren’t ready to concede as the session approached the final two minutes – including Fornaroli, who moved back up to provisional pole. It was short-lived though, as his teammate Santiago Ramos took first, while the third Trident of Sami Meguetounif moved up to third – making it a Trident 1-2-3.
That was how the session would end, as Santiago Ramos took pole ahead of both teammates Fornaroli and Meguetounif.
For the reverse-grid standings, Noel León provisionally will take pole ahead of MP’s Tim Tramnitz.
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