Fernandez snatches pole for F3 opener in Austria
FIA F3 Austria - QUALIFYING RESULTS
Sebastian Fernandez will start the opening round of the 2020 FIA Formula 3 Championship from pole position at the Red Bull Ring after snatching the top spot in the final seconds of the session.
Heading up the ART Grand Prix outfit this year, Fernandez prevailed in a fast and frenetic session that came alive in the latter stages with the Spanish-Venezuelan driver getting the edge over Lirim Zendelli.
A vast improvement in form for the second-year driver, Fernandez’s maiden F3 pole comes after he failed to score a single point during the 2019 F3 season.
There wasn’t much to choose between the top drivers with Zendeli just missing out on pole by 0.016s in his Trident car, while Oscar Piastri completed the top three in the best of the Prema Racing cars.
Logan Sargeant headed up the timesheets for the majority of the session before settling dor fourth position in the second of the Prema cars, with Briton Jake Hughes slotting into fifth place as the best of the HWA Racelab cars.
In sixth, Frederik Vesti made it three Prema cars inside the top six ahead of practice pace setter David Beckman, Alex Peroni, Macau GP winner Richard Verschoor and Roman Stanek – who was only drafted in this weekend at the last minute – rounding out the top ten.
Elsewhere, David Schumacher could only manage 24th in the Sauber Junior car, while Jack Doohan – son of 500GP motorcycle champion Mick – 15th, Sophia Floersch in 28th and Enzo Fittipaldi 29th.
