Sato on pole, Monger last for second EF Open Red Bull Ring race

Photo: Fotospeedy

A red flag interruption failed to stop Marino Sato from taking his sixth Euroformula Open pole at the Red Bull Ring, leading Julian Hanses in a Motopark one-two.

The air was cooler than in previous days, due to qualifying?s 08:15 start time, and it was Hanses who initially set the pace. His benchmark stood until Sato set the fastest lap of the weekend with a 1m23.851s. He then bettered that by a tenth, with Hanses unable to match but successful in becoming only the second driver to break the 1m24s barrier.

Double R Racing filled the second row of the grid with Linus Lundqvist and Jack Doohan, both over half a second back from Sato?s pole time. Billy Monger was fifth, but he had his best lap deleted after the session ended and was sent down to last place, promoting his Carlin team–mate Chrisitian Hahn into his previous position. Hahn is currently under investigation for overtaking during the red flag period.

Home favourite Lukas Dunner will start the second race of the weekend in sixth place for Teo Martin Motorsport, while RP Motorsport duo Javier Gonzalez and Pierre-Louis Chovet sandwich the sole Fortec Motorsports car of Calan Williams into eighth.?

Chovet was the cause of the red flag, spinning off at Turn 7 and leaving the drivers with just one flying lap each once the session restarted. Williams meanwhile was sixth fastest, before a deleted lap dropped him to 10th, but then he regained two places after Monger and his Carlin team-mate Nicolai Kjaergaard got punished for the same offence.

Qualifying results