Jack Doohan got the job done early in Qualifying, setting the quickest laptime of the session inside of the opening five minutes on a slippery Spa circuit to take his first pole in Formula 3.
In second and third, Victor Martins and Alex Smolyar were nearly two tenths off the Trident racer’s lap of 2:21.953. Doohan had said ahead of the session that he believed Championship leader Dennis Hauger was still catchable and the Australian now has an excellent opportunity to make up significant ground with the PREMA driver qualifying outside of the top 12 for the first time this season.
Richard Smolyar and Caio Collet retained third and fourth with Logan Sargeant and Clement Novalak dropping to fifth and sixth. Frederik Vesti managed to maintain his early position and kept seventh, with David Schumacher getting eighth. Johnathan Hoggard was one of very few drivers to improve in the closing stages, qualifying ninth ahead of Roman Stanek.
Jak Crawford and Lorenzo Colombo stole 11th and 12th off Leclerc and Hauger, bumping the PREMA duo down to 13th and 14th, outside of the reverse grid positions. With Olli Caldwell in 18th, PREMA have failed to qualify inside of the top 10 for the first time in Formula 3. Colombo will start ahead of Crawford in Saturday’s reverse grid Race 1, which takes place at 10.05am local time.