Back-to-back poles for Beckmann in rain-hit GP3 Monza qualifying

David Beckmann made it consecutive pole positions in GP3 as he set the fastest time of a closely-fought and rain-hit qualifying session at Monza.

The Trident driver turned in a 1m37.959s to snatch his second pole in a row in the series in the closing stages, following a short rain shower that appeared to have settled proceedings.

Beckmann pipped GP3 championship leader Anthoine Hubert by just 0.011s with the Frenchman once again leading the ART Grand Prix quartet in a qualifying session.

Behind Hubert came Campos Racing’s Leonardi Pulcini, who jumped up to third with a late improvement to seal a spot on the second row of the grid at his home event, ahead of Juan Manuel Correa and Giuliano Alesi.

Title hopeful Callum Ilott was unable to find significant gains on his final effort and ended up sixth-fastest as he missed the chance to reduce his points deficit to teammate Hubert in the drivers’ standings.

Trident’s Ryan Tveter was seventh-quickest and will be joined on the fourth row of the Monza grid by Tatiana Calderon, with the Jenzer driver impressing throughout the session as she secured her best qualifying result of 2018 in eighth.

Pedro Piquet and Niko Kari completed the top 10, while Nikita Mazepin dramatically dropped down the order to 11th, despite sitting on provisional pole as the final runs began.