PREMA Racing delivered a dominant performance in Monte Carlo as the FIA Formula 3 Championship lined up for its most crucial qualifying session of the year at the twisty street course. In Group A of the split-field qualifying session, Gabriele Minì improved lap by lap and eventually delivered a stellar late flying lap to secure Pole Position for the event’s Feature Race, his second consecutive one in Monaco.

Arvid Lindblad and Dino Beganovic also challenged for pole in Group B with consistently fast lap times and seemed set to give their Italian teammate a run for his money. Unfortunately, an untimely red flag prevented them from completing their final laps while tracking for the leading two positions. Lindblad continued his outstanding rookie run in second, followed by Beganovic.

With competitive starting placements for Sunday’s main race, the PREMA drivers will have to get smart and aggressive with the top-12 reverse grid for Saturday and its potential championship implications.

1 DINO BEGANOVIC

“Not really happy with P6. The pace has always been there, and it’s a bit annoying not to have had the same circumstances as the other group, with two red flags and an interrupted session. I was on a great lap in the end and got the red flag just before the line. There was not much we could do, I also made a mistake in an earlier lap, which was the one that counted, but we expected two more laps. Let’s see what we can do for the races. We know it’s not easy to overtake here, but we’ll try to do everything possible tomorrow and on Sunday.”

Qualifying: P3 Gr.B
Fastest lap: 1:25.078

2 GABRIELE MINÌ

“Great qualifying overall and a very good job by the team. The first laps weren’t great, I was a bit off as it was not easy to build the temperature in the tyres and gain confidence in the car. I knew the grip was coming, and I kept pushing lap after lap even if we didn’t get so much practice yesterday, but we were lucky not to get any red flags. Eventually, in the final push, everything was a bit better with tyre temperature. I took a bit more risk and in the end, it paid off with pole position.”

Qualifying: P1 Gr.A
Fastest lap: 1:23.942

3 ARVID LINDBLAD

“Not the easiest couple of days in Monaco but I’m super happy to be P2 in the group and P4 on the grid for Sunday. FPs were quite challenging yesterday with many red flags, changing conditions, and not even two push laps in the dry, so not a lot of knowledge and confidence for today. We knew qualy would have been challenging and focused on building up. Even in qualy, it wasn’t the easiest with two red flags during the session and only two push laps. We handled the session really well, I’m very happy with the team and the car was really good. We are looking forward to the races, trying to extract the best we can and as many points as possible. Overtaking isn’t easy here, but we’ll do the best we can.”

Qualifying: P2 Gr.B
Fastest lap: 1:24.940

Source | Photo: PREMA Racing