Callum Ilott will start the opening race of the Red Bull Ring weekend of the FIA European Formula 3 Championship from pole position after inheriting the position after first Joel Eriksson and then Maximilian Günther were penalised.
Eriksson had set the fastest time of the session only for the lap time to be deleted after the Swede exceeded track limits, meaning the Motopark team were denied their first pole position in the championship.
Prema Powerteam’s Günther had looked to have taken his sixth pole position of the season, only for the stewards to delete his own fastest time after being found to have improved his best when yellow flags were flying for a crash by Sergio Sette Câmara in the closing stages of the session.
This meant the Van Amersfoort Racing and Ilott were celebrating their first pole position of the season, hours after the conclusion of the qualifying session, with Günther being relegated to second place due to his penalty.
Ben Barnicoat, a race winner at both the Hungaroring and Pau in 2016, will start third in the leading Hitech GP entry, while championship leader Lance Stroll will start fourth for Prema Powerteam.
Mikkel Jensen was a strong fifth for Mücke Motorsport, with Eriksson down in sixth after having had his two quickest laps deleted for excessively running off track on those laps.
George Russell was seventh for Hitech GP ahead of Pedro Piquet, who secured his best qualifying effort of the season in eighth for Van Amersfoort Racing, while the top ten was completed by Prema Powerteam’s Ralf Aron and by Sette Câmara, who ended the session in the barriers at the final corner.
As well as Günther, Sette Câmara’s crash also affected the grid position for Guanyu Zhou, with the Motopark driver losing his eighth position and being relegated to fifteenth after being found to have gained time on the lap whilst the yellow flags were out for his team-mates crash.
Red Bull Ring Race 1 Qualifying Times
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