Topgear.ie – FR Americas Deliver Dramatic Qualifying Sessions at Mid-Ohio

FR Americas rookie Linus Lundqvist of Stockholm, Sweden, and F4 U.S. pilot Christian Bogle of Covington, Louisiana, claimed pole position, in their respective championships.

With 19 drivers representing 10 different countries, the field for FR Americas is largest and most competitive in the series history. Qualifying proved just how deep the talent reaches as the top-12 times were separated by less than a second.

Lundqvist experienced a day of firsts. Turning his first competitive laps in the United States in a formula car, the Global Racing Group driver edged out HMD Motorsports driver David Malukas for pole position by a mere .001-seconds, setting a championship record for the closest qualifying finish.

On the way to his pole-winning lap, Lundqvist also broke the Mid-Ohio qualifying track record set by Kyle Kirkwood in 2018 (1:1 9.659-seconds) with fast time of 1:19.273-seconds.

“I credit this pole position to my team Global Racing Group,” Lundqvist said. “I only arrived in the United States three weeks ago and had to quarantine before I started testing with the team. The guys managed to give me a very good welcome. The car was perfect today and I just had to do my job to get it on pole. I’m looking forward to the first race.”

Malukas, who entered FR Americas two weeks ago after Indy Lights postponed its season until 2021, found himself pushing harder, digging deep to squeeze that extra one thousandths of  second out of his Ligier JS F3 car, but the 20-minute clock expired before Malukas found that extra speed needed to knock Lundqvist off pole.

“The competition here is unbelievable, the battle for pole was like a race battle,” Malukas said. “I heard over the radio that I had a good lap but it wasn’t enough, so I went deeper and deeper, but the clock ran out so I had to give Linus (Lundqvist) the victory.

“The car felt great, we tested just two days before coming here, which my first time even seeing the car,” explained Malukas. “We set up the car quickly, came to Mid-Ohio, had two rounds of practice before going out for qualifying. The Ligier JS F3 chassis is unbelievable and the Hankook Tires come in fast and stay in grip through the heat. The amount of cars that are here with the amount of talent, tomorrow is not going to be easy. ”

Newman Wachs Racing pilot Victor Franzoni of Sao Paulo, Brazil, also finished with an impressive time (1:19.476-seconds). Though he was just two tenths of a second off Lundqvist’s pace Franzoni will start in Row 2 with FR Americas sophomore James Roe Jr. (Global Racing Group) of Naas, Ireland. HMD Motorsports driver Santiago Urruita of Miguelete, Uruguay, and Newman Wachs Racing rookie Jordan Missig of Channahon, Illinois, will start from Row 3.

Jacob Abel (Abel Motorsports), Danial Frost (Andretti Autosport), Antonio Serravalle (Jay Howard Driver Development) and Nicky Hays (Global Racing Group) rounded out the top-10 qualifying times.