Fornaroli pips Mini in late scramble for pole after Meguetounif crash

Leonardo Fornaroli secured pole position for the feature race for the Formula 3 round at Albert Park after the Trident driver beat Gabriele Mini by less than a tenth of a second.

Ferrari junior driver Dino Beganovic will start third on the grid for Sunday’s feature race, with Nikita Bedrin fourth and Williams junior driver Luke Browning in fifth.

Several drivers struggled to keep their cars on track during the session. Santiago Ramos, Matias Zagazeta and Nikola Tsolov all ran off during their first flying laps, while Joseph Loake and Tim Tramnitz both took trips over the grass on their second.

As drivers were pushing with around five minutes remaining in the session, Trident driver Sami Meguetounif ran wide at the exit of the final corner, crashing into the outside barrier and causing major damage to his car. Prema’s Gabriele Mini was immediately behind Meguetounif and managed to complete his push lap and jump into provisional pole position before the red flags brought a pause to proceedings.

After qualifying resumed with four-and-a-half minutes remaining, Fornaroli was one of the first drivers out onto the circuit. With a clear track in front of him, the Trident driver improved to take pole position with less than a minute remaining. Mini also improved on his final lap, despite the damaged car of Loake ahead of him who struck the wall at the final corner, but he was 0.019s slower than Fornaroli, which secured pole for the Trident driver.

Mini will start alongside him on the front row on Sunday, with the three ‘Bs’ of Beganovic, Bedrin and Browning behind them. Red Bull junior Arvid Lindblad will start sixth, ahead of Oliver Goethe and Christian Mansell in eighth.

ART driver Nikola Tsolov qualified sixth but will drop to ninth on the grid for the feature race after he was handed a three-place grid penalty for a concerning incident in the practice session when he collided with Alex Dunne. Martinus Stenshorne will start tenth with Laurens van Hoepen 11th and Mari Boya on reverse grid pole for the sprint race in 12th after losing his best time for exceeding track limits.

Max Esterson and Sophia Floersch were investigated by the stewards over an alleged impeding incident, but no further action was taken.

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Formula 3 Australia qualifying results

Position	Car	Driver	Team
1	4	Leonardo Fornaroli	Trident
2	2	Gabriele Minì	Prema
3	1	Dino Beganovic	Prema
4	27	Nikita Bedrin	PHM
5	14	Luke Browning	Hitech
6	25	Nikola Tsolov	ART
7	3	Arvid Lindblad	Prema
8	10	Oliver Goethe	Campos
9	23	Christian Mansell	ART
10	15	Martinius Stenshorne	Hitech
11	24	Laurens Van Hoepen	ART
12	12	Mari Boya	Campos
13	28	Josh Dufek	PHM
14	17	Charlie Wurz	Jenzer
15	11	Sebastian Montoya	Campos
16	20	Noel Leon	Van Amersfoort
17	9	Alex Dunne	MP
18	6	Santiago Ramos	Trident
19	8	Kacper Sztuka	MP
20	18	Max Esterson	Jenzer
21	19	Matías Zagazeta	Jenzer
22	7	Tim Tramnitz	MP
23	29	Callum Voisin	Rodin
24	21	Sophia Floersch	Van Amersfoort
25	5	Sami Meguetounif	Trident
26	30	Piotr Wisnicki	Rodin
27	16	Cian Shields	Hitech
28	31	Joseph Loake	Rodin
29	26	Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak	PHM
30	22	Tom Smith	Van Amersfoort

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Formula 3

• Prema announce move into IndyCar with new two-car team in 2025
• Beganovic passes Fornaroli and Mini for Australia feature race victory
• Red Bull junior driver’s track limits penalty cancelled by stewards
• Stenshorne holds off Lindblad for first F3 win in sprint race
• F3 driver given three-place grid drop for retaliatory collision which put rival in wall

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