QUALIFYING: Minì takes his second Monte Carlo Pole

PREMA Racing’s Gabriele Minì made it two Formula 3 Monte Carlo Pole Positions in a row, as he secured the coveted top spot on the grid with a 1:23.942 in Group A. Christian Mansell was the quickest driver in Group B for ART Grand Prix, but a late Red Flag ended the session early, preventing anyone from improving further in the second segment.GROUP AThe even-numbered cars hit the track first with Oliver Goethe of Campos Racing leading the first 15 runners out onto circuit.P2 in the Championship Luke Browning set the first benchmark to beat, laying down a 1:26.170 in his Hitech Pulse-Eight. That was bettered by Championship leader Leonardo Fornaroli right away, as he put in a 1:25.963 in the Trident to take over at the top spot.Browning went quicker as the track continued to improve, recording a 1:24.532 on his next effort to return to P1. Fornaroli couldn’t get back on terms as he filtered through half a second down on the Briton’s time in P2, while Mari Boya lifted himself up to third on his second lap in his Campos.With three minutes to go, Browning found more pace to bring the time to beat down to a 1:24.230. Having gone purple in sector one, Gabriele Minì moved up to P2 in the PREMA #2 car, 0.366s down on the fastest lap.Under a minute left of Qualifying and Boya was pushing to the absolute limit and tagged the inside wall at Turn 15, undoing his effort having gone fastest in sector one.Browning had been up on his time and a fastest middle sector put him on course for an improvement. But exiting Turn 16 he tapped the wall, damaging his suspension and forcing him to abandon his lap, handing a chance to his rivals.Minì obliged and set the provisional Pole time moments later on a 1:23.942, 0.288s quicker than Browning’s earlier time. Fornaroli wound up third behind the Hitech driver with Boya fourth in the group. Noel León was fifth for Van Amersfoort Racing and Laurens van Hoepen sixth for ART Grand Prix and in contention for reverse grid Pole.GROUP BMansell was the quickest driver in Group B and will start on the front row in P2After a short break, the odd-numbered half of the field ventured onto the circuit for the final part of Qualifying.Just as the first flying laps were about to get underway, the Jenzer Motorsport car of James Hedley went into the barriers at Turn 1, losing his front wing and bringing out the Red Flags.Once the session resumed, it was Dino Beganovic that laid down the initial time to beat on a 1:25.569, 0.249s quicker than next-best Mansell in the ART.Further improvements from the PREMA duo of Beganovic and Arvid Lindblad took the pace down to a 1:24.9 in the Briton’s favour, until Mansell leapfrogged the pair with a 1:24.921. Joseph Loake popped his Rodin Motorsport car up to P4 as the drivers began to push the limits further approaching the closing stages.Into the final two minutes of Qualifying and Lindblad went quickest of all in the first sector, while teammate Beganovic was purple in the middle sector. Just before the Swede could finish his lap, the Red Flags were out as Sebastián Montoya and Charlie Wurz were off at Turn 1, the latter into the barriers. With less than a minute remaining, the session was not resumed leaving Minì as the Pole sitter for Sunday’s Feature Race. With the grid aggregated together, Mansell will be alongside him on the front row with Browning third and Lindblad fourth. Fornaroli will line up fifth followed by Beganovic in P6 ahead of Boya in seventh. P8 for Loake represented his best F3 Qualifying result, along with León in ninth.Tim Tramnitz will line up in 10th for MP Motorsport ahead of ART teammates van Hoepen in P11 and Nikola Tsolov. The Bulgarian will start the Sprint Race from reverse grid Pole after ending up 12th overall.The Formula 3 Sprint Race is set to get underway at 10:45 local time on Saturday.