F3 Qualifying: Théophile Naël takes pole in Monaco

Written by Liam Ploetner

Image Credit: Formula 3

Théophile Naël made it back-to-back poles in 2026 around the streets of Monaco for Campos Racing.

Qualifying around the streets of Monaco works differently to every other round of 2026 for both Formula 2 and Formula 3. Rather than every car going on track at once, the session is split into two groups, with the even-numbered drivers going first, and the odd-numbered drivers going second.

So in the first group was Ugo Ugochukwu, Noah Strømsted, Matteo de Palo, Tuukka Taponen, Taito kato, Kanato Le, Hiyu Yamakoshi, Bruno del Pino, Brando Badoer, Louis Sharp, José Garfias, Fionn McLaughlin, Brad Benavides, Fernando Barrichello and Nandhavud Bhirombhakdi.

The first competitive time came from Ugochukwu, the championship leader. The next driver to come close to that time was Strømsted, who improved on Ugochukwu’s time. Strømsted wasn’t at the top for long, as Kato went first and Le went third for ART. 

Times continued to improve, with Campos’ Ugochukwu going back to the top and AIX’s Benavides going second. Trident’s Strømsted was on a lap which put him top despite a massive moment at Rascasse, meaning there was still lap-time on the board. Halfway through the session, Strømsted led Ugochukwu, Taponen, Benavides, del Pino, Kato and Badoer in the 1:26s, while de Palo, Yamakoshi and Bhirombhakdi made up the rest of the top ten.

After cooldown laps, the 15 drivers on track went again, and it was Kato who improved first, showing Strømsted’s time was beatable if a clean lap was made. He became the first driver to go into the 1:25s. 

The next was Ugochukwu, who had a fantastic last sector to clear Kato by almost three tenths. DAMS’ Bhirombakdhi went third, while Hitech’s McLaughlin went fifth. Badoer went top by four tenths, as del Pino went second and VAR’s Yamakoshi jumped up to fifth behind Kato, Ugochukwu, del Pino and Badoer.

Badoer was top for a minute or two, with Ferrari junior Taponen now second in the session. Now the top ten had Badoer ahead of Taponen, del Pino, Ugochukwu, Strømsted, Kato, Yamakoshi, Trident’s de Palo, Bhirombhakdi and Prema’s Sharp. The top seven by now were in the 1:25s, while eighth down to 13th were in the 1:26s with three minutes to go.

Now it was crunch time for the drivers, with green and purple sectors lighting the timing screens. Kato and Le both improved for ART, going second and seventh. Ugochukwu went second, while Yamakoshi was now third. Both MP drivers also quickened their pace, with Taponen now on top and del Pino in third.

McLaughlin picked up damage while riding the kerb at Mirabeau, ending any chances of a top 15 start for him.

Replays showed that Taponen had been impeded by Strømsted, who improved to fourth. Ugochukwu was now in fifth, with both him and Badoer continuing to improve. Badoer had previously come close to going top, but a poor middle sector cost him time.

Ugochukwu went fastest, but had his time decimated by Badoer, who used his experience to go top by three and a half tenths, making him and Ugochukwu the only drivers in the 1:24s. The rest of the top ten of session one was Taponen, del Pino, Strømsted, Yamakoshi, Kato, Sharp, Bhirombhakdi and Benavides.

Session two had the odd-numbered drivers, which included Théophile Naël, the debuting Ernesto Rivera, Freddie Slater, Mattia Colnaghi, Alessandro Giusti, Maciej Gładysz, Enzo Deligny, Pedro Clerot, Christian Ho, James Wharton, Michael Shin, Jin Nakamura, Yevan David, Nicola Lacorte and Gerrard Xie.

ART’s Gładysz set the first competitive time of session two with a 1:26.8. Slater soon improved on that by seven tenths, as did Campos duo Naël and Rivera, who sandwiched Trident’s Slater. Rodin’s Clerot went second behind Naël, and his teammate Ho went fifth. 

MP’s Giusti jumped ahead of Clerot into second and Colnaghi passed Slater to be fourth. After the first laps, Naël led Giusti, Clerot, MP’s Colnaghi, Slater, Rivera, Ho, Gładysz, Hitech’s Nakamura and VAR’s Deligny. The top three were in the 1:25s. While fourth down to 10th were in the 1:26s with six minutes to go.

Gładysz once again was the first to improve on the second laps by a tenth, but Slater comfortably beat this lap by half a second to go into the 1:24s. Campos duo Rivera and Naël now were second and third, while Deligny went fifth, Giusti sixth and Nakamura seventh.

Giusti, Rivera and Naël all went close to Slater’s time, but none beat his time on the second laps. Slater remained the sole driver to reach the 1:24s. The lap-time for group two to beat was Badoer’s 1:24.6. Slater was currently three tenths down on that.

Naël was setting a rapid pace with two minutes to go, scoring two purple sectors to go top by four tenths despite tapping the wall, beating Badoer’s time to go onto provisional pole.

Giusti improved to third, with Rivera fourth, Clerot fifth, Xie sixth, Nakamura seventh, Ho eighth, Deligny ninth and David tenth.

Gładysz had two moments, firstly up the hill through Masanet and also going through the exit of Tabac. He improved to seventh.

Slater hit the wall at Mirabeau similarly to Slater, which looked to end any hopes of a pole position. Slater didn’t give up though, and improved, but was still three tenths down before Naël improved again. Slater lost half a second in the final sector to Naël due to numerous bouts of oversteer. 

Naël secured pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix, making it back-to-back poles for the Macau Grand Prix winner. Both session winners, and thus front row sitters, were second-year drivers, showing experience was key around Monaco.

The rest of the top ten had Rivera in third, Giusti fourth, Clerot fifth, Xie sixth, Gładysz  seventh, Nakamura eighth, Lacorte ninth and Ho tenth.