Spaniard Sebastian Fernández took his maiden FIA Formula 3 pole in the first qualifying session of 2020 at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.
After an opening 20 minutes of half decent laps, the session burst into life as the times tumbled in the final few minutes, ending with the ART on pole from Lirim Zendeli who surprised many with a front row start for Saturday’s race.
Behind those came the PREMA cars with Oscar Piastri and Logan Sargeant locking out row two. Frederik Vesti recovered from a spin at the final corner to qualify sixth behind Jake Hughes.
Free Practice pace-setter David Beckmann could only manage seventh in his Trident albeit just 0.2s off pole position with Alex Peroni marking his return to racing with eighth.
Richard Verschoor and Roman Stanek completed the top ten in a session where many will be disappointed with their grid positions for race one with traffic causing issues with 30 cars on such a small track.
In particular, Hitech GP, after a superb 2019, they struggled to find the ultimate pace leaving Liam Lawson as their main contender in 12th, his teammates Dennis Hauger and Max Fewtrell could only manage 16th and 17th respectively.
Perhaps the most frustration though came for Igor Fraga who completed just five laps and missed out on the final flourish everyone else enjoyed due to mechanical issues.
| Pos. | Name | Team | Lap Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sebastian Fernández | ART | 1:19:429 |
| 2 | Lirim Zendeli | Trident | 1:19:445 |
| 3 | Oscar Piastri | PREMA | 1:19:564 |
| 4 | Logan Sargeant | PREMA | 1:19:595 |
| 5 | Jake Hughes | HWA Racelab | 1:19:618 |
| 6 | Frederik Vesti | PREMA | 1:19:676 |
| 7 | David Beckmann | Trident | 1:19:693 |
| 8 | Alex Peroni | Campos | 1:19:709 |
| 9 | Richard Verschoor | MP Motorsport | 1:19:809 |
| 10 | Roman Stanek | Charouz | 1:19:826 |
| 11 | Aleksandr Smolyar | ART | 1:20:028 |
| 12 | Liam Lawson | Hitech GP | 1:20:055 |
| 13 | Bent Viscaal | MP Motorsport | 1:20:108 |
| 14 | Clément Novalak | Carlin Buzz Racing | 1:20:111 |
| 15 | Jack Doohan | HWA Racelab | 1:20:141 |
| 16 | Dennis Hauger | Hitech GP | 1:20:190 |
| 17 | Max Fewtrell | Hitech GP | 1:20:200 |
| 18 | Matteo Nannini | Jenzer | 1:20:228 |
| 19 | Federico Malvestiti | Jenzer | 1:20:324 |
| 20 | Théo Pourchaire | ART | 1:20:338 |
| 21 | Cameron Das | Carlin Buzz Racing | 1:20:344 |
| 22 | David Schumacher | Charouz | 1:20:348 |
| 23 | Lukas Dunner | MP Motorsport | 1:20:353 |
| 24 | Calan Williams | Jenzer | 1:20:555 |
| 25 | Olli Caldwell | Trident | 1:20:846 |
| 26 | Enaam Ahmed | Carlin Buzz Racing | 1:20:858 |
| 27 | Alessio Deledda | Campos | 1:21:233 |
| 28 | Sophia Floersch | Campos | 1:21:311 |
| 29 | Enzo Fittipaldi | HWA Racelab | 1:21:330 |
| 30 | Igor Fraga | Charouz | 1:23:060 |
