Naël secures pole position in F3 Melbourne qualifying

Written by Morgan Holiday

Credit: Formula 3

Théophile Naël secured the first pole position of Formula 3's 2026 season, taking the best time at the last minute in Melbourne.

After dominating practice and most of qualifying, Ugo Ugochukwu took second place ahead of Trident's Freddie Slater.

How it happened

After a slight delay, drivers headed out on track to get warmed up and set their initial lap times. The MP Motorsport drivers, Mattia Colnaghi, Tuuka Taponen and Alessandro Giusti led the way on track, but it was Trident's Noah Strømsted who was the early pacesetter.

Ugo Ugochukwu, who led practice in a dominant fashion, then went to the top of the timing sheets with a lap time of 1:34.208s. Running went on for 10 minutes with no one able to top Ugochukwu's time before a red flag came out with 20 minutes to go. Trident's Matteo De Palo went off track through the gravel at Turn 10 and hit the wall, effectively ending his session and stopping time for the rest of the field.

Strømsted and Freddie Slater sat behind Ugochukwu on the timing sheets, with ART Grand Prix's Taito Kato in fourth. Once the track had been cleared, the session was back underway with 20 minutes still to go and everything on line.

Giusti jumped up to fourth with 14 minutes to go while Ugochukwu suffered front wing damage after hitting a bollard in Turns 9 and 10. He managed to continue without interupting the session but had to head back to the pits for repairs before a final attempt at securing pole position.

PREMA Racing's James Wharton made up ground in the meantime, jumping up the timing sheets to go second overall, still four-tenths behind Ugochukwu's provisional pole time.

Most drivers came back into the pits with about 10 minutes to go, allowing several drivers to get some running in free air without any traffic. Théophile Naël was one of those drivers out on track looking for a big improvement, and managed to get up to fourth on his lap.

With eight minutes left, the rest of the field jumped back out on track to prepare for their final runs and their final chance to secure the first pole position of the 2026 season. Ugochukwu, Wharton, Strømsted, Naël and Slater held the top five positions, with Kato down in 12th in provisional reverse grid pole for the upcoming Sprint Race.

Ugochukwu started his flying lap but was down on his previous times as Slater went fastest overall in the first sector. Colnaghi managed second place before Slater's final time usurped him, still not fast enough for pole position but just 0.061s off Ugochukwu's time. The young American on provisional pole hadn't improved on his final lap so was relying on his initial time to be faster than the rest of the grid.

Kato improved from 12th to fourth, and as the time ticked out and the final drivers finished up their laps. Maciej Gładysz improved to third place before getting overtaken as Naël set a lap time of 1:34.187s on his final lap to steal pole position at the last minute from Ugochukwu.

Slater slotted into third ahead of Gładysz, and DAMS Lucas Oil's Nicola Lacorte also improved on his final lap to complete the top five.

Colnaghi finished 6th ahead of Kato, Wharton, Brando Badoer and Strømsted. Enzo Deligny finished 11th, and just behind him Bruno Del Pino secured 12th place and reverse grid pole for the Sprint Race.

Full results can be found here.