Callum Ilott will start on pole position for the first two races of the final race weekend of the FIA European Formula 3 Championship at the Hockenheimring, while Maximilian Günther will end the year with the final pole of the season.
Ilott secured pole position for race one during Friday’s first qualifying session, with the Prema Powerteam driver’s best lap of 1:31.646s ending up 0.159 seconds ahead of Carlin’s Lando Norris.
Norris, who only needs an eighth place finish or better to clinch the title in race one, will have a massive advantage over his one remaining championship contender for the opener, with Günther, who needs to win all three races and hope Norris has three non-scores, down in twelfth.
Joel Eriksson, twice a winner last time out at the Red Bull Ring, will start third on the grid for Motopark for race one, with Jehan Daruvala fourth for Carlin ahead of team-mate Ferdinand Habsburg, who denied Tadasuke Makino of Hitech Grand Prix by just 0.001 seconds for fifth.
Pedro Piquet will start seventh in the leading of the Van Amersfoort Racing entries ahead of Jake Hughes of Hitech Grand Prix, while Nikita Mazepin and Guan Yu Zhou complete the top ten ahead of Ralf Aron and Günther.
Prema Powerteam dominated the second session, which decided the grids for races two and three, with the top three for both races coming from the Italian outfit.
Ilott was quickest overall in the session with a best lap of 1:31.685s, with the Briton being joined on the front row by Günther, who had a much better second qualifying session, as did Zhou in third.
Hughes will start race two from fourth on the grid ahead of Piquet and Eriksson, with Norris down in seventh ahead of Makino, Mazepin and Aron.
Günther and Ilott will switch places on the grid for the final race, with the German’s second best lap of 1:31.961s just 0.013 seconds better than the Britons, while Zhou again will line-up third alongside Hughes.
Eriksson and Norris will line-up on row three ahead of Hitech Grand Prix duo Makino and Mazepin, with Piquet and Aron completing the top ten.
There are two debutants this weekend in Germany, with Felipe Drugovich and Juri Vips joining the field for Van Amersfoort Racing and Motopark respectively. The Brazilian will start fourteenth, eighteenth and nineteenth respectively, while the Estonian will start twenty-first, seventeenth and twentieth.
Maximilian Gunther will start race three on pole, but may have already seen his title chances evaporate by then – Credit: FIA Formula 3 European Championship
Hockenheimring Race 1 Qualifying Result
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Hockenheimring Race 2 Qualifying Result
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Hockenheimring Race 3 Qualifying Result
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