Current FIA European Formula 3 Championship leader Esteban Ocon took his eleventh pole position of the season in dominant fashion on the series’ debut at the Moscow Raceway in Russia. The Frenchman, part of the Lotus F1 Team’s young driver programme set a best lap time more than six tenths of a second faster than anybody else.
Prema Powerteam driver Ocon will be joined on the front row by Carlin’s Jordan King, with the 2013 British Formula 3 Champion taking his best qualifying result of the season. King’s fellow Briton Tom Blomqvist and Dutchman Max Verstappen will start on the second row of the grid, with the Jagonya Ayam with Carlin driver beating the Van Amersfoort Racing driver by just 0.020s, but both were over eight tenths of a second behind Ocon.
Austrian Lucas Auer will start fifth in the leading Mücke Motorsport machine, alongside the second Carlin entry of Jake Dennis, while Ferrari Driver Academy driver Antonio Fuoco will start seventh in the second of the four Prema Powerteam entries.
Dutchman Jules Szymkowiak qualified eighth for Van Amersfoort Racing, ahead of Canadian Nicholas Latifi of Prema Powerteam and Puerto Rican Felix Serralles of Team West-Tec F3.
Twenty cars will start race one on Saturday, with the Fortec Motorsports, Double R Racing and ThreeBond with T-Sport teams opting to skip the Moscow round for various reasons.
Moscow Raceway Race 1 Qualifying Results
| POS | DRIVER | NAT | TEAM | TIME |
| 1 | Esteban Ocon | FRA | Prema Powerteam | 1:26.530 |
| 2 | Jordan King | GBR | Carlin | 1:27.149 |
| 3 | Tom Blomqvist | GBR | Jagonya Ayam with Carlin | 1:27.341 |
| 4 | Max Verstappen | NED | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1:27.361 |
| 5 | Lucas Auer | AUT | Mücke Motorsport | 1:27.422 |
| 6 | Jake Dennis | GBR | Carlin | 1:27.496 |
| 7 | Antonio Fuoco | ITA | Prema Powerteam1 | 1:27.516 |
| 8 | Jules Szymkowiak | NED | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1:27.643 |
| 9 | Nicholas Latifi | CAN | Prema Powerteam | 1:27.676 |
| 10 | Felix Serralles | PUE | Team West-Tec F3 | 1:27.684 |
| 11 | Felix Rosenqvist | SWE | Mücke Motorsport | 1:27.724 |
| 12 | Dennis van de Laar | NED | Prema Powerteam | 1:27.819 |
| 13 | Gustavo Menezes | USA | Van Amersfoort Racing | 1:27.929 |
| 14 | Roy Nissany | ISR | Mücke Motorsport | 1:28.039 |
| 15 | Antonio Giovinazzi | ITA | Jagonya Ayam with Carlin | 1:28.052 |
| 16 | Tatiana Calderon | COL | Jo Zeller Racing | 1:28.253 |
| 17 | Santino Ferrucci | USA | EuroInternational | 1:28.498 |
| 18 | Sean Galael | INO | Jagonya Ayam with Carlin | 1:28.506 |
| 19 | Hector Hurst | GBR | Team West-Tec F3 | 1:28.791 |
| 20 | Michele Beretta | ITA | EuroInternational | 1:29.103 |
