‘It’s great to start the season like that’ – Saucy pleased with top four Qualifying result

In his first Qualifying outing of his Formula 3 career, Grégoire Saucy was left satisfied with his effort after setting the fourth-fastest lap time of the session.

Saucy beat both of his ART Grand Prix team-mates Victor Martins and Juan Manuel Correa, and was just over one-tenth of a second away from pole position.

“It’s great to start the season like that,” Saucy said. “My first qualifying, I’m just so happy. We did really good work with my team ART Grand Prix during the test two weeks ago and now today.

“I’m really happy to be in this position. Now we need to still work for the race tomorrow and Sunday.”

READ MORE: Maini and Simmons receive post-Qualifying penalties

Saucy enters the 2022 F3 season as the reigning title-holder in the Formula Regional European Championship and spent pre-season testing earlier this month getting to grips with his new car.

The Swiss driver completed a number of Qualifying and race simulations during the test, which he says were hugely beneficial for his competitive debut in F3.

“It helped a lot. We did a lot of Qualifying simulations and a lot of race simulations two weeks ago during the pre-season test,” he said.

“The Qualifying sim was good, always, during the pre-season test and it helped a lot for today. Race sims during the pre-season test was a bit more difficult at the start but at the end we progressed a lot, and it was good.”

READ MORE: O’Sullivan ‘relishing’ a different type of challenge with Carlin as he steps up to F3

For his race debut on Saturday in the Sprint Race, Saucy will line-up in eighth place, as the starting order is set by flipping the top 12 in the Qualifying session.

He says that although he will attempt to make up positions on the opening lap, he will focus on keeping out of trouble and learn from his first race outing in the competition.

“I think it’s good to do a race start, try to take one position or see what will happen. And then we just need to do a good race, a proper race. I think we need to stay calm in the first few corners but after, just to be as focused as possible at the front and do our race.

“I think it’s good to not really be at the front at the first race, to learn the first race and to be fully ready for the race on Sunday.”