Alexander Albon claimed his first GP3 pole position in a session interrupted twice and with a slight rain disturbing the drivers. Charles Leclerc and Sandy Stuvik were second and third although Leclerc will get a penalty on the grid.
The conditions are humid and rain threatened at every moment, which explained why all the drivers were out very early in the session. Alexander Albon set the first fastest lap before being beaten by Charles Leclerc just before Nirei Fukuzumi spun on track and Kevin Jörg hit the wall, having the red flag deployed five minutes under investigation.
At that moment, Konstantin Tereschenko was leading from Ralph Boschung and Steijn Schothors but the Russian’s time could be deleted for track limits. Jörg, Arjun Maini, Alex Palou, Giuliano Alesi and Sandy Stuvik had not set a laptime before the red flag. Waiting for Jörg’s car to be retrieved, drivers started to queue with different tyre choices as Jake Hughes elected wet tyres and Matthew Parry chose slick tyres.
As it was the case in Austria, only a part of the circuit was wet and the race was dry. Parry could overtake Hughes in the driest part of the track and improved Tereschenko’s best time by six seconds. The gamble with slick tyres was working as ART GP’s trio claimed the three best times, Charles Leclerc being the first one to dip under the 1’50 laptime.
Arden International kept challenging ART with Jake Dennis and Jack Aitken on the top spots with 15 minutes to go. Hughes, after pitting again for slick tyres, took fourth place, his first gamble not working. With 13 minutes to go, only Trident and DAMS were out which allowed Antonio Fuoco and Hughes to take fastest time as Artur Janosz spun hard at the end of the former start-finish line.
With ten minutes to go, the rest of the field went out for a second stint. Parry set the fastest time by 0.5s to Hughes at first place before having his time deleted, allowing newcomer Arjun Maini to set the fastest time before being out qualified by Albon.
Leclerc, good enough for pole, got impeded by Santino Ferrucci in his last sector and damaged his front wing on this contact before a red flag was deployed as Ferrucci stopped on track with a puncture following his contact with Leclerc.
With 3’22 to go, drivers headed out again as it started raining again except of Albon, Leclerc, Fukuzumi and Ferrucci. With the circuit being damper than before, no one could improve.
Alexander Albon claimed maiden pole position ahead of Charles Leclerc -who would get a five-place penalty on the grid- and Sandy Stuvik. Maini (for his first GP3 outing), Isakyaan, Hughes, Fuoco, Nandy, Fukuzumi and Boschung completed the top 10.