It is a Prema 1-2 with Robert Shwartzman beating Mick Schumacher to Race 1 pole in the FIA European Formula 3 Championship at Nurburgring.
The Russian with a late lap of 1m20.637s pushed Schumacher (1m20.684s) to second by 0.047s for Race 1 to take place on Saturday morning at Nurburgring in Round 8 of the 2018 European F3 season.
The German looked set for his third pole of the season as he had beaten the likes of Motopark’s Dan Ticktum, Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala, Prema’s Ralf Aron and also Shwartzman but the Ferrari junior improved slightly on his final attempt to finish on top.
Red Bull junior Ticktum (1m20.764s) ended up third in the crucial juncture in the championship fight as both his direct rivals teammate Juri Vips (1m20.977s) and Prema’s Marcus Armstrong (1m21.024s0 were only sixth and eighth respectively.
HitechGP’s Enaam Ahmed (1m20.890s) finished fourth from Aron (1m20.938s) who had provisional pole after at the end of their first run. Ahmed’s teammate Alex Palou (1m21.008s) was seventh in the sandwich of Vips and Armstrong.
The leading Carlin was once again of Daruvala (1m21.040s) in ninth with Motopark’s Marino Sato (1m21.106s) completing the Top 10 after he bumped Prema’s Guanyu Zhou to 11th. It was a tight session with the Top 10 covered within 0.958s of Shwartzman.
Position 11-22: Zhou, Jonathan Aberdein, Sacha Fenestraz, Nikita Troitskiy, Artem Petrov, Ferdinan Habsburg, Sebastian Fernandez, Sophia Floersch, Fabio Scherer, Ben Hingeley, Keyvan Andres and Ameya Vaidyanathan.