Monza GP3: Beckmann scores back-to-back poles

Shortly after the halfway point of the 30-minute session, it began to rain, particularly in the first sector, which threatened to freeze the order at the head of the field.

At that point, ART driver Nikita Mazepin had the pole, ahead of Giuliano Alesi, Jake Hughes, Juan Manuel Correa and Beckmann. But with just under four minutes to go, Beckmann jumped to second on an improving track.

Championship leader Anthoine Hubert then took the top of the order almost immediately after that, but a lap later, Beckmann – who only switched to Trident two rounds ago from Jenzer – usurped the ART driver by just 0.011s.

Hubert held on to second, while Campos Racing's Leonardo Pulcini made a late jump to third ahead of Correa (Jenzer) and Alesi (Trident), as Mazepin and Hughes dropped down the order.

Callum Ilott – second in the championship behind teammate Hubert – took sixth, ahead of Ryan Tveter (Trident) and Tatiana Calderon (Jenzer), who equalled her best-ever GP3 qualifying performance with eighth.

Calderon had topped the 10-minute practice session held immediately prior to qualifying, after heavy morning rain led the session to be called off and rescheduled.

Pedro Piquet made a mistake on his last flying lap and was the last Trident driver in the top 10 in ninth, ahead of MP Motorsport’s top driver in the session, Niko Kari.

Hughes struggled in the closing stages like his ART teammate Mazepin, and starts one place behind him in 12th.

Session results:

Pos.	#	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	8	David Beckmann	Trident	1'37.959
2	2	Anthoine Hubert	ART Grand Prix	1'37.970	0.011
3	18	Leonardo Pulcini	Campos Racing	1'38.158	0.199
4	10	Juan Manuel Correa	Jenzer Motorsport	1'38.181	0.222
5	6	Giuliano Alesi	Trident	1'38.203	0.244
6	1	Callum Ilott	ART Grand Prix	1'38.255	0.296
7	7	Ryan Tveter	Trident	1'38.289	0.330
8	9	Tatiana Calderon	Jenzer Motorsport	1'38.333	0.374
9	5	Pedro Piquet	Trident	1'38.408	0.449
10	24	Niko Kari	MP Motorsport	1'38.487	0.528
11	3	Nikita Mazepin	ART Grand Prix	1'38.586	0.627
12	4	Jake Hughes	ART Grand Prix	1'38.620	0.661
13	11	Jannes Fittje	Jenzer Motorsport	1'38.748	0.789
14	19	Simo Laaksonen	Campos Racing	1'38.850	0.891
15	16	Joey Mawson	Arden International	1'38.896	0.937
16	22	Richard Verschoor	MP Motorsport	1'38.965	1.006
17	14	Gabriel Aubry	Arden International	1'39.035	1.076
18	20	Diego Menchaca	Campos Racing	1'39.049	1.090
19	15	Julien Falchero	Arden International	1'39.109	1.150
20	23	Devlin DeFrancesco	MP Motorsport	1'39.635	1.676