Tech 1 Racing’s Daniel Juncadella will start the GP3 feature race today from pole after taking top spot this morning at Spa-Francorchamps.
Conditions were tricky for qualifying and when the lights went green half the field went out on wets and the other half on slicks, as parts of the Belgian GP circuit were damp and others were dry.
Rio Haryanto was the first man in action for Manor Racing and it looked like his team had made the right choice with wet weather tyres, the Indonesian initially topping the timing sheets and heading up an all wet weather tyre top ten.
Amongst the early pace setters were Haryanto’s team-mate Adrian Quaife-Hobbs, Status GP’s Robert Wickens and MW Arden’s Michael Christensen followed by Jenzer Motorsport’s Simon Trummer.
RSC Mucke Motorsport’s Nigel Melker then went top, before the session was red-flagged when Dean Smith went off the track and into the tyre wall at turn 6.
On the re-start Atech CRS Gp’s Roberto Merhi and Oliver Oakes showed strong pace and the field remained split between those on wet weather tyres and those on slicks.
Carlin’s Josef Newgarden was the first driver to break into the top ten on slicks with just under ten minutes remaining and then his team-mate Antonio Felix da Costa went even quicker and popped up to third.
With six minutes left on the clock Jenzer Motorsport’s Nico Müller spun in the gravel at turn 14 and he thus failed to post a time.
In the dying minutes the top spots changed constantly as the track continued to dry, but it was Juncadella, who eventually took P1 followed by Felix da Costa.
Addax Team’s Mirko Bortolotti snatched third spot on the chequered flag, while series leader Esteban Gutiérrez went for a last gasp attempt at pole but was hampered by yellow flags and was only able to manage fourth pushing Jenzer Motorsport’s Pal Varhuag down to fifth.
Haryanto switched to slicks at mid-session and eventually took sixth ahead of Stefano Coletti for Tech 1 Racing. Championship contender Wickens was also disrupted by yellow flags and finished the session in eighth spot. Quaife-Hobbs was ninth and rounding out the top ten was Nigel Melker.
- Full qualifying results
Race 1 begins at 5:20pm local time (BST +1)
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