GP3: Luca Ghiotto takes the pole at rainy Monza

Esteban Ocon was the fastest one in yesterday’s practice session and all eyes were on him for the GP3 Monza qualifying. He managed to keep the lead until the very end, but was topped by a full second by Luca Ghiotto in the final minute of the session.. On Saturday morning when the qualifying started, the track was wet for the first time in GP3 2015 season, so all drivers aimed to set the fastest lap time as quickly as possible. Matt Parry was in the early lead followed by his teammate Jimmy Eriksson, but was topped by Artur Janosz and then Marvin Kirchhofer. Luca Ghiotto then did 1:52.041, topping the pack, but Kirchhofer returned to the provisional pole with 1:52.037. Minutes later Emil Bernstorff improved his time to third and Kirchhofer improved his time to 1:51.904.

Halfway into the session, cars kept the slower pace, but some of them improved their time, such as Kecin Ceccon who went up to third and Luca Ghiotto who topped the chart with 1:51.827, just 0.077s ahead of Bernstorff. With 13 minutes to go, the cars went to the pits for tire changes and data collecting.

With seven minutes to go, the drivers were ready for their final runs, albeit on wet tires. With three minutes to go, Esteban Ocon improved and got to provisional pole with 1:51.354, in front of Emil Bernstorff and Jimmy Eriksson who significantly improved their times. With one minute to go, Ghiotto retaliated and returned to provisional pole with 1:50.664, later improving to 1:50.007, a full second ahead of Esteban Ocon on second. Matt Parry managed to snatch third, in front of Ceccon, Bernstorff and Kircchofer. You can see the detailed results here.