Rosenqvist secures pole for Hockenheim opener
Felix Rosenqvist took pole position for the first of this weekend's European Formula 3 races at Hockenheim, edging out Antonio Giovinazzi to top a closely fought session.
Photo by: XPB Images
The Swede's best time of 1m32.455s came in the final moments of qualifying, breaking the previous benchmark established by home driver Maximilian Gunther by 0.154s.
Gunther had seized the top spot shortly after a brief mid-session red flag caused by Alex Albon ending up in the gravel, but was demoted to third as Giovinazzi came within 0.014s of Rosenqvist in the dying stages - and was denied the opportunity to further improve by another red flag brought out by Tatiana Calderon.
Fresh from his first F3 win at Silverstone, Charles Leclerc had gone quickest in the first part of the session, only for his time to be deleted. The Monegasque hauled himself back up to fourth late on, just under four tenths adrift of Rosenqvist, ahead of Ferrari junior Lance Stroll and early pacesetter Jake Dennis.
Brandon Maisano qualified seventh, while BRDC F4 graduate Raoul Hyman, Red Bull youngster Callum Ilott and German F3 champion Markus Pommer completed the top 10. George Russell meanwhile will line up down in 20th for the first race, the Brit ending up just over a second off the pace.
Marvin Kirchhofer meanwhile did not participate in the session after announcing his withdrawal from the series in order to focus on his GP3 commitments.
Qualifying results:
Pos | Driver | Time/Gap |
1 | Felix Rosenqvist | 1m32.455 |
2 | Antonio Giovinazzi | 0.014 |
3 | Maximilian Gunther | 0.154 |
4 | Charles Leclerc | 0.390 |
5 | Lance Stroll | 0.461 |
6 | Jake Dennis | 0.505 |
7 | Brandon Maisano | 0.542 |
8 | Raoul Hyman | 0.582 |
9 | Callum Ilott | 0.647 |
10 | Markus Pommer | 0.678 |
11 | Sergio Sette Camara | 0.703 |
12 | Gustavo Menezes | 0.732 |
13 | Arjun Maini | 0.763 |
14 | Mikkel Jensen | 0.826 |
15 | Sam MacLeod | 0.828 |
16 | Santino Ferrucci | 0.954 |
17 | Michele Beretta | 0.971 |
18 | Nicolas Beer | 0.980 |
19 | Ryan Tveter | 1.000 |
20 | George Russell | 1.008 |
21 | Julio Moreno | 1.062 |
22 | Matthew Solomon | 1.188 |
23 | Alessio Lorandi | 1.240 |
24 | Pietro Fittipaldi | 1.361 |
25 | Dorian Boccolacci | 1.380 |
26 | Nabil Jeffri | 1.446 |
27 | Fabian Schiller | 1.579 |
28 | Tatiana Calderon | 1.715 |
29 | Matt Rao | 1.759 |
30 | Martin Cao | 1.783 |
31 | Kang Ling | 1.863 |
32 | Mahaveer Raghunathan | 2.096 |
33 | Zhi Cong Li | 2.474 |
34 | Nicolas Pohler | 2.969 |
35 | Alexander Albon | 9.238 |
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