F3: Mini overcomes Beganovic for Monaco split Qualifying pole

Alpine Academy junior Gabriele Mini ran the streets of Monte Carlo to snatch a dominant second pole position in his rookie Formula 3 season. Setting a 1m 23.278s in the final seconds of Qualifying, the Italian beat out Ferrari junior Dino Beganovic by over six tenths.

F3’s debut in the Principality saw Qualifying split into two groups of 16 minutes each, with the results aggregated between the two. Made up of even-numbered cars, Group A headed out first, with the fastest time passing back and forth between Beganovic and the newest Williams junior Luke Browning.

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Edging ahead by just 0.003s to top the opening group as the chequered flag was flown, the PREMA Racing driver then had a nervous wait in the pit lane to see if anyone in Group B could beat his 1m 23.880s benchmark.

After topping the wet-to-dry Practice on Thursday, Minì instantly staked his claim on the top spot, clocking in consecutive fastest laps. However, his 1m 24.139s was still down on Beganovic, before one final blistering attempt by the Hitech Pulse-Eight driver snatched pole away from the Swede.

It will be an all-Hitech/PREMA front two rows, with Paul Aron securing third ahead of Browning.

Caio Collet took third for Van Amersfoort Racing, ahead of Sebastian Montoya, Gabriel Bortoleto and Franco Colapinto. Taylor Barnard and Leonardo Fornaroli completed the top 10.

Qualifying 12th overall, Gregoire Saucy will get Saturday’s Sprint Race under way from reverse grid pole. Lights go out at 1100 local time.

Read the full in-depth report on the official Formula 3 website.