Jones walks away unhurt from crash & qualifies in 10th place

Anthony Fernandes 13:59 10/05/2014
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Mail
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Difficult weekend ahead: The Pau Grand Prix is only Jones’ second street circuit race after Macau, but the youngster is nevertheless looking ahead to the weekend.

    Dubai-based British national Ed Jones qualified in 10th for Race 1 of Round 3 of the Formula 3 European Championship at Pau in France, despite crashing into the barriers in the dying minutes of the Group B session.

    Unlike previous rounds, the qualifying session for Race 1 at the 2.76km-long street circuit in Pau was split into two heats – Group A and Group B, the groups determined by odd and even car numbers.

    Jones’ 20-minute qualifying session in Group B was going fine, consistently inside the top five and going as high as second at one point.

    However, with a little less than five minutes left in the session, Jones crashed into the barriers and caused the second brief interruption after qualifying was redflagged for the first time just before the halfway point when Roy Nissany had crashed into the side barriers.

    Jones though, had done enough by then, setting a best time of 1min 10.887sec on the ninth lap to finish fifth overall in Group B and eventually be classified 10th for this afternoon’s Race 1 (13:15 UAE time), which will run for 35 minutes.

    Ahead of qualifying, Jones had predicted an enjoyable but difficult weekend ahead, especially as he has very limited street circuit racing experience.

    The Carlin driver told Sport360: “The circuit is on the streets of Pau so it will be extremely difficult and exciting to drive.

    “I have only driven one other street circuit before, which was in Macau last November so the concept is still quite new to me.

    “Since it’s a street race the main focus will be on getting qualifying right. This is because it is near impossible to overtake on street circuits, therefore wherever you start you usually finish.”

    Meanwhile, pole position for the race went to local favourite Esteban Ocon, who leads the championship after he went fastest in Group B, a time that was also faster than Group A leader Lucas Auer.

    Max Verstappen and Nicholas Latifi will line up on the second row.

    Group A got the qualifying session under way, and with 90 seconds remaining in the 20-minutes session, qualifying was interrupted after Felix Serralles crashed into the tyre barriers.

    Once the action had resumed, none of the drivers managed to beat Auer’s time and the Austrian ended up first in his group.

    Latifi followed in second place from Tom Blomqvist, with Jordan King and Serralles completing the top five.

    In Group B qualifying, Verstappen topped the time sheets in the opening stages with the Dutchman aware he would have to better Auer’s time if he was to secure pole.

    For most of qualifying, Verstappen and Ocon traded places at the top but with 11 minutes remaining, the latter moved into first place.

    Verstappen was classified second from Jake Dennis in Group B. Ocon said: “Especially here, being on pole position is great, I feel fantastic! When the red flags were out for the second time, I hoped that the session wouldn’t be restarted because I was already first in my group.

    “However, the action resumed and I did my utmost to remain on top. The final lap was my best and was enough to claim pole position, which is particularly nice in my home race. The track here is great and a lot of fun to drive.”

    Recommended