After free practice in the morning, the F3 returns to the track in the Austrian GP with some qualifications which promised to be chaotic given the 30 cars on a track of just over 4 km and they did not disappoint expectations.
With 20 minutes to go the first interesting halves begin to arrive. Noel Léon was the first to dip under 1:21.00, followed closely by Minì, who stopped the clock at 1:20.869, preceding the young Mexican driver by just 5 thousandths. Qualifying continues with a back and forth between Leon and Minì. Time is increasingly cut down with the Mexican making the difference in the central sector.
Difficulties for Fornaroli and Mansell
World championship leader Fornaroli is struggling with 15 minutes left in the session and is only in tenth position. Mansell, pole sitter in the last qualifying sessions in Barcelona, is also struggling. The winner of the last Feature Race, Lindblad, occupies sixth place halfway through qualifying. All the drivers return to the garage for the final changes to the car before the decisive phase of the session, except Wurz, better after free practice. The home rider placed in 14th position while all the others were stationary.
After the first qualifying phase the provisional podium is made up of Leon, Minì and Meguetounif, with the latter slightly later than the first two, separated by a few thousandths.
Incandescent finale in Austria
8 minutes from the end of qualifying the drivers return to the track for the final stint. The sky in Spielberg begins to darken and as soon as the drivers return to the track they inform the pits of the arrival of rain on the Austrian circuit: it would seem that qualifying could end here. However only a few drops arrive, which does not wet the track, allowing the times to drop further.
The last few minutes are really chaotic with all the cars on the track trying to improve, this leads to various impediments, in fact there are various situations reported to the commissioners, the grid could therefore still be upset.
Browning prevails from the chaos, who placed himself ahead of everyone in qualifying with a time of 1:20.222. Lindblad moves up to second place, followed by Tramnitz. Minì finishes in fourth position failing to lower his time on the last lap due to traffic, when he had improved in both the first two sectors. Very negative qualification also for the Italian Fornaroli, eighth at the checkered flag but relegated due to track limits. The Trident pilot will therefore only depart in 24 ° position.
