Ferrari junior and Prema’s Guanyu Zhou claimed pole for Race 1 in FIA European Formula 3 Championship at Hockenheim in a tight finish.
The Chinese driver improved to set a 1m32.335s lap time late in the session to claim his second pole of the 2018 season for Race 1 at Hockenheim in a close finish with the Top 4 separated by just the 0.038s.
HitechGP’s Alex Palou (1m32.355s) will start on the front-row alongside Zhou with Prema’s Robert Shwartzman (1m32.370s) and Carlin’s Jehan Daruvala (1m32.373s) in row two. The Indian held provisional pole before he was beaten by Zhou.
Motopark’s Juri Vips (1m32.450s) slotted in fifth ahead of the 2018 title contenders with Prema’s Marcus Armstrong (1m32.481s) in sixth leading the current points leader and teammate Mick Schumacher (1m32.505s).
The German can breathe a sigh of relief as the closest contender Red Bull junior and Motopark’s Dan Ticktum (1m32.594s) is only ninth behind newcomer Van Amersfoort Racing’s Frederik Vesti (1m32.581s).
The Top 10 was rounded out by Renault junior and Carlin’s Sacha Fenestraz as the likes of Prema’s Ralf Aron, Carlin’s Ferdinand Habsburg and HitechGP’s Enaam Ahmed were only 12th, 13th and 14th respectively.
Position 11-23: Artem Petrov, Aron, Habsburg, Ahmed, Fabio Scherer, Nikita Troitskiy, Julian Hanses, Sophia Floersch, Ben Hingeley, Keyvan Andres, Marino Sato, Jonathan Aberdein, Ameya Vaidyanathan and Sebastian Fernandez.