It was a tightly contested qualifying session at Spa-Francorchamps this afternoon, with the entire top 22 covered by just one second—highlighting just how fine the margins are in FIA Formula 3.

James Hedley qualified P28, in a session where track position, tyre timing, and outright pace all played a crucial role.

The session was full of drama. AIX Racing’s Benavides claimed pole position with a 2:04.253, narrowly beating Câmara—whose reinstated lap time placed him just 0.106s behind. Voisin rounded out the top three with a strong final effort.

Further down the order, Bilinski impressed with a run to P4, followed by Stenshorne and Ugochukwu, while Tsolov and Inthraphuvasak slotted into seventh and eighth. Charlie Wurz placed ninth, ahead of Bruno del Pino and Noah Stromsted. Freddie Slater, in P12, secured reverse grid pole for Saturday’s Sprint Race.

The top 12 was stacked with familiar names including Giusti, Taponen, and Boya, all battling for key grid positions as drivers tried to get the best out of their Medium tyres across both runs.

With three rounds left in the season, every qualifying session counts. While P28 isn’t where James wanted to be, there’s still plenty of opportunity to move forward during the Sprint and Feature races.

The Sprint Race gets underway tomorrow at 09:15 local time.