Official F1 Journal Formula 3 Friday Round Up- Australia

Round 2 of the Formula 3 2024 Season brings the grid to Albert Park for the Australian Grand Prix. After a brilliant opening weekend in Bahrain that saw Arvid Lindblad storm to the first Sprint race win of the year in his Prema car and Luke Browning in his Hi-tech winning the Feature race and going top of the Championship table. Followed by Tramnitz in 2nd who had strong weekend, scoring well in both races. 

Practice 

We saw cars straight out on track when the pitlane lights went green, except the 3 ART & 3 Jenzer cars. The Jenzer cars waited in the pits for the first 10 minutes of the 45 minute session before all 3 cars came out leaving just the ART cars still to come out. Tommy Smith had a big lock up into turn 3 but kept the car going before returning to the pits for new medium rubber. 
32 minutes on the clock and finally with all the cars on track yellow flags were out at turn 14 for Cian Sheilds who had lost the rear and hit the barriers at the final corner and ultimately the session was Red flagged to recover his car, just as we started to see some competitive times and before any of the 3 ART cars could set a time. When the session was stopped Mini was top, Beganovic 2nd, Wurz 3rd Goethe 4th, Loake, Wisnicki, Montoya 5th,6th & 7th, Sophia Florsch, Dunne & Sheilds completed the top 10 in 8th, 9th & 10th. Lindblad had been 3rd before having his lap deleted. 

22 minutes on the clock and the session resumed with all the cars going straight out on track. Montoya was looking fast right out of gate but was still a long way off the fastest, Dunne went top of the times on his first flying lap till he was beaten by Beganovic and then Mini who reclaimed 1st.
Boya was the next man to challenge for fastest as he went purple in sector 1, until being beaten by Dunne and  Mini who again found time in the first sector and beat both cars times & go 7 tenths faster than any other car in his Prema. 
15 minutes to go Mini was fastest, Beganovic 2nd Fornarolli 3rd Mansell 4th, Leon 5th. 
Championship leader Luke Browning went 3rd fastest on his first flying lap of Practice as Boya & Dunne found the run off area at turn 6 being forced to cross the grass. 

As the closing 10 minutes of the session ticked down we saw a lot of traffic start to form with times coming in thick and fast, Charlie Wurz jumped to 7th followed by Lindblad who went 4th fastest.
2 minutes to go and Nichola Tsolov hit Dunne in a bizarre incident the brought out the Red Flag. We saw Dunne 'weaving' to heat his tyres, Tsolov closed quickly on Dunne while he was doing so almost hitting him, only to then pull along side and veer right, into the side of Dunne in what could only be described as a deliberate act, causing Dunne to hit the barrier.
With only 2 minutes left on the clock and Dunne's car needing to be recovered the session was not resumed. 

Practice Result 

1 MIN                 2 FOR +0.345
3 BEG +0.655    4 LIN +0.659
5 BRO +0.660    6 MEG +0.667
7 WUR +0.735   8 MAN +0.866
9 LEO +1.004    10 TSO +1.069
11 BOY +1.106  12 GOE +1.109
13 VAN +1.269  14 BED +1.281
15 DUF +1.283  16 RAM +1.444
17 TRA +1.468   18 MON +1.501
19 DUN +1.558   20 EST +1.624
21 SZT +1.741    22 STE +2.071
23 FLO +2.120    24 VOI +2.320
​25 INT +2.430     26 WIS +2.576
27 LOA +3.015    28 SMI +3.130
29 ZAG +4.004    30 SHI +4.472   

Qualifying 

Geothe lead the pack out as the lights went green for Qualifying in Melbourne, traffic around the Albert park track with all 30 cars on track was a real issue and getting that banker lap in early was a challenge. 
Ramos found himself in the gravel trap of turn 10 but managed to keep the car going to carry on. Fornaroli went top early in the session, followed by Mini & Beganovic in 2nd & 3rd. Lindblad found the gravel at turn 12 on his next flying lap, Goethe put himself up to 4th fastest, Browning beating him to go 3rd, Mansell, Bedrin & Lindblad all improved on their laps as the times tumbled through out the field. 
15 minutes on the clock Fornaroli still has the fastest time and provisional feature race pole, Championship leader Browning was in 3rd hoping for a good Qualifying as we saw the cars return to the pits to prepare for their final runs of Qualifying to set the reverse top 12 Sprint Race and the Sunday Feature race. 7 minutes on the clock and we saw cars making their preparation laps to start their last flying laps of the session ​

Browning was the first man to set a fast lap but he was half a second down on Fornaroli in the first sector, Mansell, Mini and Meguetounif were all going faster till with 4 minutes left of  Qualifying Sami Meguetounif brought out a Red flag after a big hit coming out of the final corner, he carried to much speed into turn 14 and found the barrier on the outside.  Unfortunately for most of the field the Red flag came out just as they were on their fast laps meaning they had to bail on laps that would have seen them improve. Luckily for Mini he set his time before the Red flag was called putting him top ahead of Fornaroli in 2nd, Tsolov who received a 3 place grid penalty for his conduct in Practice earlier in the day was in 3rd, Championship leader Luke Browning was in 4th and Stenshorne who got a cracking lap in was 5th fastest. ​

The session got going again at 14.39 local time with 4 minutes 33 on the clock for 29 cars to get in their fastest laps of Qualifying, it was set to be a frenetic end to the session with the last man to cross the line being the fastest historically at Albert Park.  
​

Traffic was crazy and we saw lots of cars desperatey trying to find space to start their flying laps, Fornaroli was first to start his, and he went purple in the 1st sector Mini came back at him in the middle sector also going purple with Beganovic going very fast in his Prema car. Fornaroli went fastest as he crossed the line as we saw Loake hit the wall at turn 14 seriously damaging his Rodin Motorsport car. Goethe managed to go 3rd fastest, Mini could not beat Fornaroli and went 2nd, Beganovic followed him across the line to go 3rd, Tsolov went 4th ahead of Goethe but with his 3 place grid penalty wouldn't stay there. Browning was setting Purple sectors on his final lap but it was only good enough for 4th till Bedrin went ahead of him to take 4th and push Browning down to 5th. Yellow flag flew in sector 1 for Loake's stranded Rodin as the final laps were set meant that even the cars who crossed the line in time couldn't set another lap but touche to Loake for keeping the car going with a badly damaged rear suspension and clearing the start finish straight so the other cars could complete their laps.  
After the session had ended we saw multiple drivers lose laps to track limits and this is how the grid for Sunday looks. 

Qualifying Result 

1 FOR                 2 MINI +0.019
3 BEG +0.300     4 BED +0.345
5 BRO +0.391     6 BOY +0.527
7 TSO +0.540     8 LIN +0.672
9 GEO +0.723    10 MAN +0.925
​11 STE +1.051   12 VAN +1.064
13 DUF +1.243   14 WUR +1.268
15 MON +1.279  16 LEO +1.314
17 DUN +1.377   18 RAM +1.420
19 SZT +1.441    20 EST +1.443
21 ZAG +1.473    22 TRA +1.483
23 VOI +1.729     24 INT +1.821
25 FLO +1.858    26 MEG +2.018
27 WIS +2.369    28 SHI +2.475
29 LOA +2.656    30 SMI +3.755

Reverse Top 12 Sprint Grid 

1 VAN        2 STE
3 MAN       4 GOE
5 LIN         6 BOY
7 BRO       8 BED
9 TSO*     10 BEG
11 MIN      12 FOR 
13 DUF     14 WUR
15 MON    16 LEO
17 DUN     18 RAM
19 SZT       20 EST
21 ZAG      22 TRA
23 VOI       24 INT
25 FLO      26 MEG
27 WIS      28 SHI
29 LOA      30 SMI

Joanna Blackmore
​Writer @f1journal.co.uk