F3: Slater takes pole in Monza as title rival Ugochukwu loses out

Freddie Slater took a brilliant F3 pole position at Monza, seizing the advantage going into the weekend over title rival Ugo Ugochukwu, who is left at the back of the grid for both races.

With Qualifying split into two groups around the Italian venue, the TRIDENT driver ran in Group B and completed a 1m 38.114s to take pole from his team mate Matteo De Palo.

De Palo was fastest in Group A on a 1m 38.143s but missed out on a maiden pole. He will start on the front row alongside his team mate in the Feature Race at his and TRIDENT’s home race weekend.

Having finished second behind Slater in Group B, Nicola Lacorte will go from third for DAMS Lucas Oil ahead of ART Grand Prix driver Kanato Le, who was P2 in Group A.

Campos Racing’s Ernesto Rivera is set to start from P5 in front of the second ART car of Taito Kato. MP Motorsport’s Alessandro Giusti and Van Amersfoort Racing’s Hiyu Yamakoshi will share the fourth row of the grid.

MP’s Mattia Colnaghi is set to start from P9, as AIX Racing’s Fernando Barrichello rounds out the top 10.

Pedro Clerot is 11th ahead of the third MP car of Tuukka Taponen in P12. The Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy member will start from reverse-grid pole in Saturday’s Sprint Race.

As for Ugochukwu, a mistake at Turn 1 on his only lap squandered his chances of pole, with his time only good enough to finish P10 in Group A.

The Campos Racing driver will be keen to bounce back, starting in the Sprint Race, which is scheduled for 0930 local time tomorrow morning.

Until then, you can read a full report from today’s FIA Formula 3 Qualifying session from Monza on the official championship website here.