SPA QUALIFYING ANALYSIS: Where Benavides made the difference over Câmara to take pole

Brad Benavides took his and AIX Racing’s first Pole Position in Formula 3 in phenomenal style at Spa-Francorchamps, beating Championship leader Rafael Câmara to the top spot.

The American’s 2:04.253 was enough for him to outduel the TRIDENT driver to P1 by 0.106s, but where did he make the difference to come out on top?

THE FIRST SET

Benavides, like the majority of the field, went for two laps on his first set of Medium tyres. After his second run, he returned to the pit lane in P21, 1.021s off Câmara in P1 on a 2:05.557.

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The AIX driver was then down to 24th when the Van Amersfoort Racing trio completed their next set of laps in the gap. With the rest of the teams keeping their cars in the pit lane, VAR sent theirs out on to an empty track.

It helped Théophile Nael go fastest with a 2:05.508, while Santiago Ramos moved up to third and Ivan Domingues jumped up to P10.

This meant for Benavides to be on pole, he had to find more than a second on his next lap.

THE POLE LAP

The track was ramping up and Mari Boya, who was at the front of the field, and running without a tow, beat Nael’s time by 0.421s.

With the Spa-Francorchamps circuit having several long straights, mostly in the first and third sectors, each driver was looking for a tow, and the slipstream effect was proving very powerful.

As TRIDENT Team Manager Giacomo Ricci said after the race weekend, finding a tow was “necessary” to achieve a good lap.

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So, Boya’s Campos Racing teammate Nikola Tsolov, who was running behind him found the tow incredibly powerful and beat the Spaniard to P1 by 0.461s – having been quicker than him in both the first and third sectors, but slower in the second.

Martinius Stenshorne followed Tsolov across the line and beat him by 0.103s with a 2:04.484. Then came Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak to go to third and then Benavides who went to pole on a 2:04.253.

Câmara though had just set the fastest middle sector and was largely matching Benavides but crossed the line to finish 0.106s off the AIX driver, leaving the American unmatched.

HOW THEY DIFFERED ACROSS THE LAP

Looking at the timings, Benavides was quicker than Câmara through the first and third sectors, and, as previously mentioned, this is where the long straights reside.

The 24-year-old was purple in the first sector with a 37.675s, while Câmara completed it in a 37.855s. So, the Brazilian was 0.180s down going into the second sector.

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But this is where Câmara made the difference, he was much quicker than everybody else in the middle sector, over two-tenths clear of the rest of the field with a 53.483s.

Benavides did a 53.869s, which meant his advantage had now turned to a deficit of 0.206s going into the final part of the lap.

But once again, Benavides was fast in the straights and completed the final sector in 33.709s, and when compared to Câmara’s 34.021s, it gave the American pole by 0.106s.

HOW DID BENAVIDES MAKE THE DIFFERENCE?

The speed trap shows that in the first sector, Benavides was clocked at 282.5km/h, while Câmara was at 281.5km/h. Not a massive discrepancy, but in a field where things are tight, the little things can make a big difference.

In the third sector, Câmara was at 177.4km/h, while Benavides was at 178.3km/h. Again, not a massive difference, but it is a gap. So how did this happen?

Well, both AIX and TRIDENT ran a low downforce configuration. Now there are other setup changes they could make, but both cars looked to be running similarly.

In the post-Qualifying press conference, Benavides said that he got a “really good tow” and that came from Inthraphuvasak, so the slipstream proved powerful.

But sometimes you can be too close to the car in front, so the tow is not as effective. But on this occasion, it appears the AIX driver got the distance to Inthraphuvasak perfectly right for the straights.

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Across the line, he was incredibly close to the Campos driver, and this might be why he struggled so much in the technical middle sector as he was suffering in the dirty air.

But in the straights, it worked perfectly and coupled with Benavides’ great driving and AIX’s good work, it all came together to give each their first Formula 3 pole.

On the other hand, Câmara, who also received a tow from Callum Voisin, appeared to suffer a slide through the final chicane, and that might be where he lost it. This all shows the margins that exist when it comes to Qualifying in Formula 3.