Rafael Câmara sweeps third consecutive F3 pole in dominant qualifying performance

Written By Trisha Lynnette, Edited by Morgan Holiday

Credit: Formula 3

In the recent qualifying Rafael Câmara made history as he became the first Formula 3 driver to receive the Aramco Pole Position Award. Santiago Ramos and Noah Strømsted follow suit in P2 and P3. Read more to know about the thrilling and historical F3 Qualifying.

This year's grid welcomed a multitude of rookies, many of whom haven’t experienced a track like Imola yet in their careers. The qualifying that took place today clearly proved the technicality of the track and its extreme track limits and grip. 

At practice Câmara topped the time table. However, we also saw Ugo Ugochukwu of PREMA Racing face a bit of a mishap. With just three minutes left in the practice, Ugochukwu came into a tricky corner and locked a bit, had a wobble, hit the curve, got greedy for power and ran off the track with a small tap on the barrier. However, the damage wasn’t much and we saw him drive in the qualifying session. 

Qualifying began at Imola at 15:05 CEST (13:05 GMT). The drivers set out on the track, ready to heat up their tyres on the track for their qualifying. The first few minutes of the session saw drivers completing two to three out laps for their tyres. 

Santiago Ramos of Van Amersfoort Racing took the provisional pole on his flying lap early on, the first of the grid to do so. He was overtaken by Roman Biliński of Rodin Motorsport. This was shortly taken back by Ramos as he completed another flying lap. Tim Tramnitz then went fastest, with a timing of 1:33.318. Championship leader Câmara took it away by two tenths of a second. 

Many of the drivers experienced a few mishaps with track limits such as Laurens Van Hoepen of ART Grand Prix who went wide and exceeded the track limit as he went on the gravel. Nikola Tsolov of Campos Racing also drove onto the grass in the middle of the apex of the last corner. The track clearly proved to be narrow with very small margin for error, having many tricky chicanes.

The drivers pit for their new tyres, most teams demonstrating similar strategy. The only difference in strategy was out of the 4 sets of Pirelli slick given to the teams, a few teams used two sets in the practice leaving two sets for qualifying. This was noted as unusual as teams usually use one set for practice and three for qualifying.

James Hedley of AIX Racing went into the pit later than the other drivers on the grid. Most of the drivers finished with their tyre change and went back out on track to set new laps but a few drivers remained in the pit - Benavides, Hedley and Naël. 

Credit: Formula 3

With 15 minutes left on the clock, drivers came out of the pits. Ramos was in a good position at this time as he had a clear road ahead of him. However he takes two out laps, to warm up his tyres. The track temperature was now up by 15°C and air temperature was at 19°C. 

Câmara took provisional pole once again, and this time most drivers failed to top his time. 

Brando Badoer managed to take the provisional pole position right before the red flag was waved due to a crash by Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak. 

Inthraphuvasak crashed due to an oversteer moment at the Acque Minerali corner and was stuck in the gravel.

The session was stopped for a few minutes as drivers entered the pits, green flag ready to come out once the Campos Racing car was off track. It was notified that the session would resume at 15:30 CEST (13:20 GMT). 

The session began as drivers moved on to the track for an out lap. Everyone slowed down on their lap in an attempt to find clean air. A red flag infringement for Matías Zagazeta was noted by the stewards and no further action was taken. 

All drivers were out on track except for Câmara, this caused the driver to fall down to P14 in the grid. Once Câmara was out on track, he faced traffic as he tried to quickly finish his out lap with just 6 minutes left in the session. Câmara struggled to get pole position in his first flying lap.

In the meantime, Ramos took the provisional pole. The driver had taken pole position last year at the same track with Trident, thereby making it a special track for himself. However this special moment was short lived as Câmara managed to take pole position in the final moments.

Strømsted sets out for his flying lap at the 20th second, managing to pull through the grid and secure P3 for the Feature Race. 

That brought the qualifying session to an end with Câmara having gained pole position, followed by Ramos in P2 and Strømsted in P3. 

Credit: Formula 3

During qualifying, fans could see the struggle Câmara faced in the last few minutes. When asked about his feelings about the traffic he had to maneuver through at a press conference attended by DIVEBOMB, Câmara said: "I had to do a down lap just looking at the mirrors. And so when I went on the out-lap there was a big traffic before turn 17.

"So yeah that was a key point, because if I didn't overtake all the others I would be quite in trouble. It was just getting worse and worse but at the end I managed well and it paid off." 

With the new car this season, the drivers mainly focused on their simulators to prepare for the races, but how much did that prep match the real world car and tough track they faced today? 

“Yeah, of course for this year it’s a new car, so we’ve also been developing the model we have in the simulator, but it’s very accurate and it’s a very good preparation before the weekend,” a confident Noah Strømsted said as he applauded the machinery provided to him by Trident. “And I think this why we always start in quite a high level.”

“Still need to match a bit with the new car but of course it is very useful for us to make sure that when we arrive at the track, it’s something that’s not new for us. So we can already be at a high level of driving and focus on the details,” said Câmara as he reflected on what his teammate mentioned earlier. 

“I think once you start the weekend in a good way, it’s way easier to know what you can improve, where you need to gain the time and it makes everything more simple, even to understand the car, the balance. I think everything, it makes it easier.”

However for Ramos, it was a bit more difficult than that described by the Trident drivers. “Yeah I think for me it’s different because I had to adapt. You know? I was used to driving Trident’s simulator for long and then changing teams very very late at the end of the year. Obviously not much preparation prior to the pre-season test in Barcelona.

“And yeah, from there we have to start working on the model in the simulator because like they say, it;s a completely brand new car. So we have to try to make it as close to reality. And yeah, it’s working quite well at the moment."

The grid for the Sprint Race taking place at 10:05 AM CEST (8:00 AM GMT) will be in the reversed order with Bruno Del Pino of MP Motorsport taking first row, followed by his teammate Tim Tramnitz and Mari Boya of Campos Racing. 

Make sure to catch the sprint live and if you can’t, don’t worry! Head back over to DIVEBOMB for all the action you might’ve missed.