Home Z - Archive seriesFIA European F3 Aron leads Hitech front row for race two, Gunther gets pole for race three

Aron leads Hitech front row for race two, Gunther gets pole for race three

by Peter Allen

Aron

Ralf Aron will lead a Hitech front-row lockout for the second race of the Formula 3 European Championship weekend at the Norisring, while Maximilian Gunther claimed race three pole position.

Force India Jehan Daruvala had led much of the second qualifying session, and cemented his place at the top of the times when he became the first driver to go under the 48-second mark this weekend with only two minutes remaining.

Championship leader Gunther then bettered that, but seconds later the race-one pole-sitter Jake Hughes went even quicker.

His team-mate Aron had the final say, posting a lap of 47.859s that was 0.082s faster than Hughes’ effort.

Meanwhile, Gunther improved his time by two thousandths on his next attempt – not enough to move him up from third overall but enough to make his previous benchmark the fastest second-best time.

Daruvala ended up fifth quickest overall behind his Carlin team-mate Lando Norris, but he does move onto the front row for race three.

Aron and Hughes will share row two, with Norris sixth alongside the other Carlin driver Ferdinand Habsburg.

Habsburg managed only 11th on fastest times, behind Pedro Piquet, Callum Ilott – who takes a five-place grid penalty for contact with Keyvan Andres in his torrid opening race – Harrison Newey, Nikita Mazepin and Guan Yu Zhou.

Zhou will start seventh in race three in front of Mazepin, Ilott and title contender Joel Eriksson, who was only 12th fastest.