Euro F3 Monza: Raffaele Marciello takes pole for third race
Ferrari protege Raffaele Marciello stole the show in final qualifying for this weekend's Formula 3 European Championship opener at Monza by taking pole position for Sunday's third race
Italian blitzed his way to the top in his Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes by 0.165 seconds over Pascal Wehrlein, who earlier took pole for races one and two.
Marciello was happy with his performance at the end of a day that has given him top-three starting positions for all three races.
"The lap before was even better," he said. "but on that lap I didn't get a slipstream.
"On my pole lap I did get one and I got the time. I'm happy - the car is very good and easy to drive."
Backing up such sentiments on the Prema set-up were team-mates Alex Lynn, Lucas Auer and Eddie Cheever, who claimed third, fourth and seventh respectively.
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Like Marciello, Lynn felt that he completed an even better lap than his fastest one, but without a slipstream it was slower.
Wehrlein's form with the Mucke Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes team is in stark contrast to team-mate Felix Rosenqvist, one of the hotly-tipped title contenders.
Rosenqvist, who was fastest in free practice, could not put his finger on what was wrong with the car after struggling to 12th in the times.
Pipo Derani made a big leap forward from the earlier qualifying session to take fifth in his Fortec Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes, with Britons Jordan King and Harry Tincknell sixth and eighth respectively in their Carlin Dallara-Volkswagens.
Completing the top 10 are the Mercedes-powered EuroInternational car of Tom Blomqvist and the Nissan-engined T-Sport car of Will Buller.
Race 3 grid: Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Raffaele Marciello Prema Dallara-Merc 1m44.781s 2. Pascal Wehrlein Mucke Dallara-Merc 1m44.946s + 0.165s 3. Alex Lynn Prema Dallara-Merc 1m44.987s + 0.206s 4. Lucas Auer Prema Dallara-Merc 1m45.026s + 0.245s 5. Pipo Derani Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m45.240s + 0.459s 6. Jordan King Carlin Dallara-VW 1m45.259s + 0.478s 7. Eddie Cheever Prema Dallara-Merc 1m45.296s + 0.515s 8. Harry Tincknell Carlin Dallara-VW 1m45.321s + 0.540s 9. Tom Blomqvist EuroIntern'l Dallara-Merc 1m45.355s + 0.574s 10. Will Buller T-Sport Dallara-Nissan 1m45.452s + 0.671s 11. Sven Muller Ma-con Dallara-VW 1m45.530s + 0.749s 12. Felix Rosenqvist Mucke Dallara-Merc 1m45.547s + 0.766s 13. Felix Serralles Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m45.662s + 0.881s 14. Josh Hill Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m45.717s + 0.936s 15. Lucas Wolf URD Dallara-Merc 1m46.748s + 0.967s 16. Dennis van de Laar Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW 1m45.774s + 0.993s 17. Nicholas Latifi Carlin Dallara-VW 1m45.822s + 1.041s 18. Roy Nissany Mucke Dallara-Merc 1m45.919s + 1.138s 19. Mitchell Gilbert Mucke Dallara-Merc 1m46.143s + 1.362s 20. Mans Grenhagen Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW 1m46.204s + 1.423s 21. Antonio Giovinazzi Double R Dallara-Merc 1m46.332s + 1.551s 22. Jann Mardenborough Carlin Dallara-VW 1m46.355s + 1.574s 23. Andre Rudersdorf Ma-con Dallara-VW 1m46.725s + 1.944s 24. Spike Goddard T-Sport Dallara-Nissan 1m46.964s + 2.183s 25. Sean Gelael Double R Dallara-Merc 1m47.218s + 2.437s 26. Gary Thompson Ferraris Dallara-Merc 1m47.223s + 2.442s 27. Dmitry Suranovich Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m47.596s + 2.815s 28. Tatiana Calderon Double R Dallara-Merc 1m47.763s + 2.982s 29. Sandro Zeller Zeller Dallara-Merc 1m47.782s + 3.001s 30. Michela Cerruti Ferraris Dallara-Merc 1m48.981s + 4.200s
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