Daniel Ticktum secured the first pole position of the 2018 FIA European Formula 3 Championship on Friday afternoon, while free practice pacesetter Mick Schumacher crashed out after suspension problems put him into the barriers.
With Qualifying split into two groups, it was Guan Yu Zhou who led Group A with a time of 1:10.022s, with the Prema Theodore Racing driver looked likely to take pole position only for the Red Bull-backed Motopark driver Ticktum to deny him this by just 0.009 seconds.
It will be the Briton’s first pole position of his European Formula 3 career in just his fourth start, with Ticktum having competed with Carlin in the season finale of the championship at the end of 2016.
Ferdinand Habsburg will line-up on row two for Carlin where he will be joined by another Prema Theodore Racing driver in Ralf Aron, while a third, Ferrari Driver Academy star Robert Shwartzman will start fifth ahead of a second Carlin in Renault Sport Academy racer Sacha Fenestraz.
Alex Palou will start seventh as Hitech Grand Prix finally found some speed this weekend, while Jehan Daruvala will join the Spaniard on row four for Carlin, with Enaam Ahmed (Hitech Grand Prix) and Marcus Armstrong (Prema Theodore Racing) sharing row five.
However, one driver who will be more disappointed than most in Qualifying will be Schumacher, who had set a time earlier in the day that would have been good enough for pole position only for a suspension problem to leave him with a broken car and down in eighteenth position on the grid with a lot of work to do just to score points.
Pau Race 1 Qualifying Result
[table id=2982 /]
