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Felix Rosenqvist claims first pole position of the year

  • gb
10.04.15
Swede Felix Rosenqvist claimed the first pole position of the new FIA Formula 3 European Championship season.

At the 5.901 kilometres long Silverstone Grand Prix circuit, the 23-year-old stalwart ended up ahead of Italian Antonio Giovinazzi (Jagonya Ayam with Carlin, 1:51.274 minutes), who was second. Jake Dennis (Prema Powerteam, 1:51.332 minutes) was the best-placed British driver in third place in front of his compatriot George Russell (Carlin, 1:51.652 minutes), who emerged as the fastest rookie driver in first qualifying.

Felix Rosenqvist moved up to the top of the time sheets with eight minutes remaining, claiming first place from Charles Leclerc (Van Amersfoort Racing, 1:51.685 minutes) who was leading the Qualifying until then. In Rosenqvist’s slipstream, the Swede’s team-mate Jake Dennis also came to the fore and was second for a while. Later on, the Brit lost that position again two Antonio Giovinazzi. After that, the order in front remained unchanged until the end of the session. Thus, Rosenqvist claimed his first pole position in the 2015 FIA Formula 3 European Championship.

Behind the two best-placed rookie drivers George Russell and Charles Leclerc, Brandon Maïsano (Prema Powerteam, 1:51.768 minutes) was classified sixth. The Frenchman, who is contesting his maiden FIA Formula 3 European Championship season, had topped the time sheets in free practice on Friday morning. Lotus Formula 1 junior driver Alexander Albon (Signature, 1:51.792 minutes) from Thailand, Canadian Lance Stroll (Prema Powerteam, 1:52.066 minutes) and German Markus Pommer (Motopark, 1:52.113 minutes) ended up in seventh to ninth place respectively. Thus, Pommer scored the first top ten result in the first-ever FIA Formula 3 European Championship qualifying session for his team Motopark. Brit Callum Ilott (Carlin, 1:52.113 minutes), a member of the Red Bull junior team, was classified tenth behind Pommer.

Felix Rosenqvist (Prema Powerteam): “For our team, things were already going quite well in free practice, because all the Prema Powerteam drivers were within the top six. Our performance was already pretty good. In qualifying, the main thing was to find a lap without too much traffic and then push it to the limit on this lap, in which I succeeded. Surprisingly, my first lap was also the fastest. Starting off the season with a pole position is always nice.”