F3: Gabriele Mini secures Monaco pole for PREMA Racing

It was back-to-back Monte Carlo poles for Gabriele Mini, as the PREMA Racing driver added to his 2023 success with P1 in 2024. The Alpine Academy talent set a 1m 23.942s in the first segment of qualifying to earn the fastest lap of Group A.

Williams Academy and Hitech Pulse-Eight driver Luke Browning had been provisionally quickest, but a mistake on the exit of the Swimming Pool chicane saw the Briton tap the barriers, damaging his suspension and ending his hopes of pole before he could finish his final flying lap.

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With the Formula 3 qualifying session split into two groups of 15, Mini’s benchmark was the time to beat as Group B headed out for their 16-minute session.

PREMA team mates Dino Beganovic and Arvid Lindblad were the duo that looked quickest on the initial attempts, until ART Grand Prix’s Christian Mansell popped himself up to P1 on a 1m 24.921s.

There were two red flags in the second segment of qualifying, the first coming early on as rookie James Hedley nosed his Jenzer Motorsport car into the barriers in the opening stages.

The second arrived with less than two minutes remaining and, crucially, came too late in the session to make a restart.

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It prevented Beganovic and others from posting any further improvements, with the Swede just a few hundred metres from the line to finish a lap that would have put him top of the group.

In the end, with the groups aggregated together, Mini will go from pole in Sunday’s Feature Race with Mansell alongside him in second and Browning third.

For a full and in-depth report on the FIA Formula 3 qualifying session in Monaco, head over to the official website here.