Red Bull Ring F3: Ferrari junior Armstrong on pole

Armstrong looked the class of the field early on, establishing a laptime strong enough for pole before the drivers headed out for final efforts late in the session.

But a two-lap showdown was set up when Logan Sargeant crashed his Carlin-prepared car into the barrier at the final turn with just over four minutes to go, after a wheelie had left him unable to steer and he crashed heavily into the wall, apparently unhurt.

Just before the stoppage, the Hitech drivers Juri Vips and Leo Pulcini bailed themselves out of a drama by jumping into third and fourth respectively.

The Red Bull-supported Vips had been 22nd and Pulcini 16th, but both improved just before the Sargeant-induced red flag and were the only drivers who had time to do so before the incident.

Vips then improved further after the session went green to take second, but was jumped by the last car in the session to complete a lap, ART Grand Prix driver and reigning Formula Renault Eurocup champion Max Fewtrell.

Fewtrell was 0.123s behind Armstrong for his best qualifying of the season so far, ahead of Vips and the second Prema Racing-run machine of Jehan Daruvala.

The third Prema car of points’ leader Shwartzman had been fourth and four tenths off pole when he pulled off the track on the run to Turn 4 early in the session.

His car was wheeled back behind the barrier and he took no further part. The SMP and Ferrari-backed Russian will start the race 12th, having not qualified lower than third or finished lower than fourth so far this season.

Behind Daruvala in fourth, Fewtrell’s teammate and fellow Renault junior Christian Lundgaard moved up to fifth late on, ahead of Paul Ricard pole-sitter Jake Hughes.

The HWA driver was knocked down from fourth where his late lap had initially put him.

Pulcini had to settle for seventh with his last effort, while Trident Racing’s Pedro Piquet moved up the order late on to secure eighth.

David Beckmann made sure all the ART drivers made the top 10 in ninth, while Sebastian Fernandez should have secured a best qualifying of the season in 10th for Campos Racing, but driving through a pitlane red light in practice docked him three places on the grid. 

Session results

Cla	#	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap
1	26	Marcus Armstrong	Prema Powerteam	14	1'19.716
2	2	Max Fewtrell	ART Grand Prix	16	1'19.839	0.123
3	21	Jüri Vips	HitechGP	17	1'19.896	0.180
4	27	Jehan Daruvala	Prema Powerteam	14	1'19.934	0.218
5	3	Christian Lundgaard	ART Grand Prix	14	1'20.003	0.287
6	11	Jake Hughes	HWA AG	16	1'20.075	0.359
7	20	Leonardo Pulcini	HitechGP	17	1'20.188	0.472
8	18	Pedro Piquet	Trident	14	1'20.190	0.474
9	1	David Beckmann	ART Grand Prix	16	1'20.203	0.487
10	25	Sebastian Fernandez	Campos Racing	15	1'20.204	0.488
11	7	Lirim Zendeli	Charouz Racing System	16	1'20.234	0.518
12	28	Robert Shwartzman	Prema Powerteam	6	1'20.277	0.561
13	10	Bent Viscaal	HWA AG	16	1'20.301	0.585
14	6	Richard Verschoor	MP Motorsport	15	1'20.308	0.592
15	17	Devlin DeFrancesco	Trident	14	1'20.323	0.607
16	23	Alex Peroni	Campos Racing	14	1'20.328	0.612
17	4	Liam Lawson	MP Motorsport	16	1'20.386	0.670
18	30	Felipe Drugovich	Carlin	14	1'20.407	0.691
19	5	Simo Laaksonen	MP Motorsport	14	1'20.427	0.711
20	19	Niko Kari	Trident	14	1'20.476	0.760
21	29	Teppei Natori	Carlin	15	1'20.539	0.823
22	15	Giorgio Carrara	Jenzer Motorsport	17	1'20.592	0.876
23	22	Ye Yifei	HitechGP	16	1'20.662	0.946
24	31	Logan Sargeant	Carlin	11	1'20.673	0.957
25	8	Fabio Scherer	Charouz Racing System	15	1'20.778	1.062
26	9	Raoul Hyman	Charouz Racing System	16	1'20.887	1.171
27	14	Yuki Tsunoda	Jenzer Motorsport	15	1'20.959	1.243
28	12	Keyvan Andres	HWA AG	16	1'21.319	1.603
29	16	Andreas Estner	Jenzer Motorsport	15	1'21.658	1.942
30	24	Alessio Deledda	Campos Racing	15	1'21.935	2.219
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