Dino Beganovic made an impressive start to the F3 season, backing up his strong performance in free practice by setting the fastest time in the first qualifying session of the year.
Williams Academy driver Luke Browning was second in his Hitech entry, falling 0.167s short of the 1m46.431s pole time of his Prema-entered rival.
ART drivers Laurens van Hoepen will start the first race of the year, Friday’s partial reverse-grid sprint offering, from pole position after qualifying in 12th.
The session began poorly for Joshua Dufek, who was forced to return to the pits following the first of his two warm-up laps with a transponder issue on his PHM AIX Racing entry.
It briefly appeared that he could have been granted a reprieve as Racing Fields drivers Oliver Goethe took too much kerb at Turn 3 on his opening flying lap and caused his car to shut off.
Despite coasting up the straight to Turn 4, Goethe was able to get his engine started again without causing a red flag that could have benefited Dufek.
Dufek later found himself under investigation for touring the support race pitlane during the moment of strike.
Luke Browning, Hitech Pulse Eight
Photo by: Formula Motorsport Ltd
While 18 drivers registered times in the opening stint, the pace-setter from the earlier practice session, Browning (Hitech), was among those to return to the pits without troubling the timesheets.
This was in contrast to the driver who finished second in that session, Leonardo Fornaroli (Trident), who led the way with a 1m47.619s.
A somewhat cleaner second run saw all drivers put a time on the board with Fornaroli briefly falling down the order before re-establishing himself at the top of the pile, improving by half a second to 1m47.141s.
Less than two tenths covered the top six before the final efforts as Beganovic (Prema) went second-fastest, just 0.060s back. Browning was at the tail end of the top six while Nikita Bedrin (PHM AIX Racing) sat in the all important P12, a position that gives reverse grid pole for the sprint race.
However, this placing was short-lived as Max Esterson (Jenzer) had his time deleted, shuffling the order and promoting Goethe into the sprint pole position.
In the final shuffle, Christian Mansell (ART) crossed the line first to lower the benchmark before eventually dropping to eighth.
Behind the front row of Beganovic and Browning are Gabriele Mini (Prema), Sami Meguetounif and Santiago Ramos (both Trident). Fornaroli eventually dropped to sixth.
F3 Bahrain – Qualifying results
| 1 |
D. Beganovic Prema Powerteam |
1 | 10 | 183,059 | |||
| 2 |
L. Browning Hitech Pulse-Eight |
14 | 10 | 0.167 | 182,772 | ||
| 3 |
G. Mini Prema Powerteam |
2 | 10 | 0.003 | 182,767 | ||
| 4 |
S. Megetounif Trident |
5 | eleven | 0.194 | 182,435 | ||
| 5 |
S. Ramos Trident |
6 | eleven | 0.003 | 182,430 | ||
| 6 |
L. Fornaroli Trident |
4 | eleven | 0.007 | 182,418 | ||
| 7 |
T. Tramnitz MP Motorsport |
7 | eleven | 0.023 | 182,379 | ||
| 8 |
C. Mansell ART Grand Prix |
23 | eleven | 0.015 | 182,353 | ||
| 9 |
A. Lindblad Prema Powerteam |
3 | 10 | 0.030 | 182,302 | ||
| 10 |
M. Esterson Jenzer Motorsport |
18 | eleven | 0.061 | 182,198 | ||
| eleven |
N. Tsolov ART Grand Prix |
25 | eleven | 0.007 | 182,186 | ||
| 12 |
L.Van ART Grand Prix |
24 | eleven | 0.021 | 182,150 | ||
| 13 |
N. León Van Amersfoort Racing |
twenty | eleven | 0.069 | 182,033 | ||
| 14 |
A. Dunne MP Motorsport |
9 | 12 | 0.102 | 181,859 | ||
| fifteen |
M. Boya Racing Fields |
12 | eleven | 0.037 | 181,797 | ||
| 16 |
C. Wurz Jenzer Motorsport |
17 | 10 | 0.021 | 181,761 | ||
| 17 |
O. Goethe Racing Fields |
10 | eleven | 0.007 | 181,749 | ||
| 18 |
N. Bedrin PHM AIX Racing |
27 | eleven | 0.011 | 181,731 | ||
| 19 |
C. Voisin Rodin Motorsport |
29 | eleven | 0.007 | 181,719 | ||
| twenty |
M. Zagazeta Jenzer Motorsport |
19 | 10 | 0.001 | 181,717 | ||
| twenty-one |
J.Loake Rodin Motorsport |
31 | eleven | 0.002 | 181,714 | ||
| 22 |
M. Stenshorne Hitech Pulse-Eight |
fifteen | eleven | 0.252 | 181,287 | ||
| 23 |
T. Inthraphuvasak PHM AIX Racing |
26 | eleven | 0.264 | 180,843 | ||
| 24 |
K. Sztuka MP Motorsport |
8 | eleven | 0.010 | 180,826 | ||
| 25 |  S.Flörsch Van Amersfoort Racing |
twenty-one | eleven | 0.067 | 180,714 | ||
| 26 |
J. Dufek PHM AIX Racing |
28 | 7 | 0.066 | 180,604 | ||
| 27 |
T. Smith Van Amersfoort Racing |
22 | eleven | 0.051 | 180,518 | ||
| 28 |
P. Wiśnicki Rodin Motorsport |
30 | eleven | 0.042 | 180,448 | ||
| 29 |  S. Montoya Racing Fields |
eleven | eleven | 0.387 | 179,803 | ||
| 30 |
C. Shields Hitech Pulse-Eight |
16 | eleven | 0.207 | 179,461 |
