F3: Benavides and AIX Racing on pole in Spa Qualifying session

Brad Benavides earned his and AIX Racing’s first pole position in FIA Formula 3 with a superb final attempt to pip Championship leader Rafael Camara to the top spot.

The American delivered a 2:04.253 as the track ramped up by a full second in the latter stages of the session to claim P1 and a memorable result for the team.

Camara recorded a time that put him on provisional pole earlier in Qualifying, but his final improvement was good enough only for second, though he was made to sweat going into the last attempt of the day.

The Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy member’s 2:04.359 was deleted for exceeding track limits, leaving him 22nd before it was reinstated ahead of the chequered flag, promoting the TRIDENT driver back into second place.

Completing the top three was Rodin Motorsport’s Callum Voisin, who also took full advantage of the track improvement to go third quickest, 0.011s ahead of teammate Roman Bilinski in fourth.

Martinius Stenshorne completed the top five for Hitech TGR and led fellow McLaren Development Driver Ugo Ugochukwu, the PREMA Racing talent following in sixth.

Championship contender Nikola Tsolov wound up seventh for Campos Racing ahead of team mate Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak in P8.

Charlie Wurz, Bruno del Pino and Noah Stromsted followed, with Freddie Slater set to go from reverse grid pole after ending up 12th on his second weekend in FIA F3 this season.

For all the details of FIA Formula 3 Qualifying from Spa-Francorchamps, head to the official website here.