Hauger beats Doohan to first Formula 3 pole of 2021 in Barcelona

After a disappointing first season in F3, Hauger made the switch to Prema from Hitech Grand Prix.

Hauger topped practice and converted that impressive pace into pole in Spain, to take the four additional points that come with it.

Doohan led much of qualifying but was unable to match Hauger’s third and final effort.

A last-ditch effort from Victor Martins moved him up to third for MP Motorsport, 0.061s off Hauger’s pole time.

Matteo Nannini was second after the first runs, but his charge faltered as he dropped to fourth in the lead HWA Racelab.

ART Grand Prix’s Frederik Vesti completed the top five.

Olli Caldwell was the second-highest Prema car in sixth, just over 0.3s shy of teammate Hauger.

Clement Novalak, Logan Sargeant and David Schumacher rounded out the top nine, while Brazilian Caio Collet was tenth fastest.

The stewards noted an incident between Collet and Hauger, when Collet was warming up his tyres at Turn 3, he erratically nearly swiped Hauger.

With Hauger taking pole, he will start the first sprint race from 12th on the grid.

Like in Formula 2 for this year, F3 will have three separate races throughout each weekend, rather than just two.

Friday’s qualifying results dictate the grid for Sunday’s main feature race.

The qualifying result from Friday also decides the grid for Saturday’s first sprint race, although the top 12 is reversed.

The result from the first sprint race is once again reversed for the second sprint race, which takes place after Formula 1 qualifying on the Saturday.

This means Jonny Edgar will line up on pole position for the first sprint race after qualifying 12th, behind 11th placed man Aleksandr Smolyar.

Juan Manuel Correa qualified an impressive 13th on his return to competitive racing, while Arthur Leclerc will be disappointed with 15th.

16-year-old Jak Crawford will start his first F3 race from 20th on the grid.

Click here to find the full Formula 3 qualifying results from Spain.