QUALIFYING: Minì leaves it late to beat Martins to pole in Melbourne

Gabriele Minì’s 2025 season got off to a fine start in Melbourne as the PREMA Racing driver beat Victor Martins to Pole Position at an action-packed Qualifying in Albert Park.

On his final lap of the session, Minì completed a 1:29.286 to beat the ART Grand Prix driver to the top spot, with Jak Crawford ending up third, over three-tenths behind for DAMS Lucas Oil.

It was a frenetic start to Qualifying though as the drivers jostled for position, Max Esterson and Oliver Goethe even collided at the penultimate corner.

Both were forced to return to the pit lane with damage, with the incident prompting a post-session investigation from the Stewards.

Once the flying laps started to come, it was Martins that set the early pace on a 1:31.012, putting him over two-tenths ahead of Minì.

Martins then improved to a 1:30.489 on his next attempt, but he was quickly pushed down to third, first by Crawford and then by Minì. Moments later however, Leonardo Fornaroli clocked a 1:30.136 to go fastest.

The majority of the grid chose to return to the pit lane after two push laps, but Fornaroli was able to eke out more performance from his Supersofts. The Invicta Racing driver completed a 1:29.948 to put him 0.230s ahead of Minì.

The action resumed with less than eight minutes to go and with his new tyres on, Martins went fastest on a 1:29.523. Crawford went closest to matching the top time, 0.064s behind in second.

The drivers continued to improve and while Martins went quicker on his final attempt, Minì crossed the line late on to take Pole Position with a 1:29.286, beating his ART rival by 0.114s to the top spot.

Crawford ended up in third place ahead of MP Motorsport’s Richard Verschoor and Rodin Motorsport rookie Alexander Dunne in fifth.

Roman Stanek was sixth for Invicta ahead of the Hitech TGR pairing of Dino Beganovic and Luke Browning. AIX Racing’s Joshua Duerksen wound up in P9, with Fornaroli set to start from reverse grid pole in the Sprint Race after qualifying 10th.

The drivers of Rodin Motorsport, DAMS Lucas Oil, and TRIDENT will serve a 10-place grid penalty in both the Sprint and Feature Races, this includes Crawford and Dunne inside the top 10. The others are Kush Maini, Amaury Cordeel, Max Esterson and Sami Meguetounif.

The 23-lap Sprint Race is set to get underway tomorrow at 14:15 local time at Albert Park.