QUALIFYING: Nael makes it three in a row as he beats Ugochukwu to pole in Barcelona

Théophile Nael took his third consecutive Aramco Pole Position award to start the season, beating Campos Racing teammate Ugo Ugochukwu to pole in Barcelona.

Nael’s 1:28.263 was enough to seal him take P1 ahead of Ugochukwu by just 0.039s, with Van Amersfoort Racing’s Hiyu Yamakoshi in third.

After the first set of laps it was Ugochukwu that led the way with a 1:28.707, with Taito Kato in second, 0.491s behind the American driver.

There were three Campos cars in the top five, with Ernesto Rivera and Nael in third and fifth respectively, Brando Badoer sandwiched between the duo in P4.

The drivers were brought in after those first runs, with the teams putting on another set of new Hard tyres.

They returned to the track with less than 18 minutes to go and Bruno del Pino went quickest by 0.086s with a 1:28.621.

However several drivers were improving, in particular Nael, who set the three fastest sectors to go to P1 with a 1:28.263, bettering Ugochukwu by just 0.039s with Badoer in P3.

Just six minutes remained on the clock when the field started to filter back out on to the track.

Nael did not improve on his final lap leaving under pressure from those behind him. However nobody could beat the Campos driver’s time giving him his third consecutive pole position to start the season.

Ugochukwu stayed in second after a difficult middle sector on his final attempt, with Yamakoshi in third. Badoer and Kato followed, with Bruno del Pino sixth ahead of Rivera and Deligny.

Tuukka Taponen was ninth for MP Motorsport ahead of Freddie Slater and James Wharton, with Gerrard Xie rounding out the top 12.

Xie is set to start from reverse grid pole in Saturday’s Barcelona Sprint Race which is scheduled to get underway at 10:05 local time.