Barcelona GP3: Renault's Aitken takes pole for season opener

Aitken, who beat his ART Grand Prix teammate Nirei Fukuzumi to the top spot, lit up the timing screens in the first two sectors to go quickest on his final lap at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and claim his first-ever GP3 pole.

Trident driver Dorian Boccolacci – the fastest driver in pre-season testing at Barcelona – had held first place after the field had completed their first series of flying laps, but could not improve as much as Aitken and Fukuzumi on his final run and ended up third.

Mercedes F1 junior driver George Russell finished fourth in his first GP3 qualifying session, ahead of Arden’s Leonardo Pulcini and Jenzer Motorsport racer Arjun Maini.

Giuliano Alesi – son of former F1 racer Jean – was seventh-fastest, just in front of Alessio Lorandi, reigning Italian Formula 4 champion Marcos Siebert and Anthoine Hubert, who completed the top 10 for ART.

Santino Ferrucci and Tatiana Calderon – F1 development drivers for Haas and Sauber respectively – qualified 14th and 18th for DAMS.

Alex Kalinauckas / Autosport

Qualifying results

Pos.	#	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap
1	1	Jack Aitken	ART Grand Prix	12	1'34.187
2	2	Nirei Fukuzumi	ART Grand Prix	12	1'34.358	0.171
3	12	Dorian Boccolacci	Trident	13	1'34.380	0.193
4	3	George Russell	ART Grand Prix	13	1'34.468	0.281
5	6	Leonardo Pulcini	Arden International	13	1'34.602	0.415
6	24	Arjun Maini	Jenzer Motorsport	13	1'34.685	0.498
7	10	Giuliano Alesi	Trident	13	1'34.708	0.521
8	22	Alessio Lorandi	Jenzer Motorsport	13	1'34.720	0.533
9	28	Marcos Siebert	Campos Racing	14	1'34.788	0.601
10	4	Anthoine Hubert	ART Grand Prix	12	1'34.866	0.679
11	5	Niko Kari	Arden International	13	1'34.964	0.777
12	27	Raoul Hyman	Campos Racing	14	1'35.031	0.844
13	7	Steijn Schothorst	Arden International	13	1'35.041	0.854
14	14	Santino Ferrucci	DAMS	12	1'35.070	0.883
15	26	Julien Falchero	Campos Racing	12	1'35.088	0.901
16	11	Ryan Tveter	Trident	14	1'35.224	1.037
17	9	Kevin Jorg	Trident	12	1'35.423	1.236
18	15	Tatiana Calderon	DAMS	13	1'35.613	1.426
19	16	Bruno Baptista	DAMS	12	1'35.851	1.664