Rafael Câmara claimed his fourth career Formula 3 pole position on Friday at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya with an outstanding lap that put him 0.216 seconds ahead of Nikola Tsolov and Laurens van Hoepen. After the session, the top three spoke to Feeder Series about the importance of track position and communication with their engineers.

By Daniele Spadi

Câmara’s pole position, his fourth in five races, makes him the first driver ever in the current iteration of F3 to take four poles. The top 26 drivers were covered by just 0.993 seconds as drivers found themselves in close quarters on the timesheets – and around the 4.657-kilometre circuit.

In the opening runs, it became immediately clear that traffic would play a major role in the session. As drivers jockeyed for track position, several of them, including Monaco feature race winner Nikola Tsolov, struggled to prepare for their opening runs because of the other cars on the track.

“For me, it was the most important thing in this qualifying,” the Bulgarian told Feeder Series in the post-session press conference. “The warm-up was not great for the first two sets [of tyres], just because I was having traffic and having to wait behind all the cars, and that was compromising my run in general.”

In the opening runs, Tuukka Taponen set the fastest lap with a 1:29.391, with Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak and James Wharton right behind him.

Drivers were searching for the limit right away, and some of them crossed it. Charlie Wurz and Ugo Ugochukwu made mistakes in Turn 8 that left them without a valid lap time after the first run, while Tsolov and Tim Tramnitz were among the drivers who lost their laps because of track limits violations.

On the second runs, Tsolov climbed up to fourth, but Câmara then once again asserted his dominance on one-lap pace by setting a blistering 1:28.761, 0.345s quicker than anyone else’s lap. Laurens van Hoepen found his way up to second, with MP teammates Alessando Giusti and Tim Tramnitz rounding out the top four. Improvements from other drivers knocked Tsolov down to 11th.

While most drivers fought for track position and the opportunity for a tow, Câmara waited in the pit lane until all other cars had left. – This decision, he said, came from seamless communication with his engineer to find the best moment to get out on track.

“It’s very important, the communication with the engineer,” Camara told Feeder Series. “to make sure that we can prepare well at the beginning of the lap – especially here, where [the last turn] is a fast corner. So if you slow down too much, you can lose a bit of time until T1.

“Today, the team did a very good job. On set two, I was almost all the time alone and I was able to do the warm-up I wanted. With this as well, you gain a lot of confidence for T1. You’re able to push how you want to.”

Tsolov was the first to improve on his final attempt, moving up to second place, albeit 0.216 seconds away from pole. He did so as the first driver to start a flying lap, which reduced the risk of getting his lap ruined by traffic but left him without the chance for a tow – until the end of the lap.

“I was the first car running, the first car starting my push [lap], which is obviously a bit risky because you can catch the last cars of the group,” he said. “The closest one was actually Rafa. He was pretty nice to  start pushing in front of me and he actually gave me a tow down the line, so it worked out good.”

Câmara failed to improve on his final attempt, but his previous time was good enough for his fourth pole position of the season, giving him two crucial points in the championship.

Van Hoepen also did not go quicker on his last run but retained third in what was his best qualifying performance of the year. He too agreed that traffic management was the primary variable to master in such a tricky session.

“Track position is key,” he told Feeder Series. “It’s so important where you are on track, to be able to have a free lap when the tyre is there. We speak a lot with the engineers, and also before qualifying, we try to make a plan to be sure that we’re in the right position.”

Van Amersfoort Racing’s Théophile Naël climbed up to fourth thanks to a last-second effort. Teammate Santiago Ramos, already a two-time race winner, finished fifth, while rookie Ivan Domingues completed a great qualifying session for the Dutch outfit with seventh, right behind MP’s Alessandro Giusti in sixth.

After a challenging weekend in Monaco, Noah Strømsted returned to his usual form to claim eighth position after the flag fell, with Taponen and Tramnitz rounding out the top 10.

Last week’s sprint winner Martinius Stenshorne claimed the 11th fastest time in qualifying and will line up on the front row on Saturday for the second race weekend in a row.

Roman Bilinski finished qualifying in 12th, thus giving him a crucial pole position for the reverse-grid sprint race. Though the Pole’s fastest lap was originally deleted minutes after the end of qualifying for track limits, it was later reinstated. Six drivers behind him missed out by less than a tenth, with James Wharton, who had provisionally inherited 12th place, just 0.004s behind the Rodin driver.

Header photo credit: Dutch Photo Agency