Van Hoepen grabs pole as Browning crashes, points leader Mini 15th · RaceFans

Laurens van Hoepen claimed his first pole position for a Formula 3 feature race as the leading championship contenders hit trouble in qualifying at the Hungaroring.

The ART driver, who started the first two partial-reverse-grid sprint races this year from pole, took the top spot with less than a minute to go in the session. It was red-flagged moments later when Luke Browning crashed at turn 11.

The Hitech driver faces an anxious wait to learn whether he will keep the seventh place position earned by his previous lap time, or if the stewards will delete the time under the new powers handed to them for this season. If Browning does lose his time, he will fall back towards the two other drivers in the top three championship places. Gabriele Mini could only manage the 15th fastest time while Silverstone double-winner Arvid Lindblad is only 22nd.

Nikola Tsolov was able to grab the second-fastest time before the red flags flew. He relegated Leonardo Fornaroli, fourth in the points, to third on the grid. Fornaroli set the fastest time after the drivers’ second set of runs, pipping Noel Leon by a thousandth of a second.

Santiago Ramos took fifth place ahead of the first AIX driver, Joshua Dufek. He briefly led his three team mates at the top of the times after the drivers completed their first runs, before Tasanapol Inthrphuvasak and Nikita Bedrin fell down the order to 12th and 13th respectively.

Browning took seventh – for now at least – followed by Sami Meguetounif, who had just set the fastest first sector time when the session was red-flagged. Dino Beganovic was in a similar position, also he narrowly failed to complete his final lap. It was a frustrating session for the Prema driver, as he accused rivals of holding him up in the final sector at one stage on his way to 14th.

Tim Tramnitz took ninth ahead of Christian Mansell, who like Browning also went wide at turn 11, but without crashing. Sophia Floersch also spun at the same corner, but continued on her way to 28th. She will line up ahead of Tommy Smith and Sebastien Montoya, the latter losing his only lap time to a track limits violation.

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