Shwartzman edges Schumacher for Nurburgring European F3 pole

Robert Shwartzman beat his Prema team-mate Mick Schumacher with a last-gasp effort to top the first Formula 3 European Championship qualifying session at the Nurburgring.

Ferrari academy driver Shwartzman, who is still chasing his maiden win in F3, set a 1m20.637s on his final lap of the short Nurburgring course to knock Schumacher off top spot by 0.047s.

Form man Schumacher, who has taken a win in each of the last three European F3 rounds, still secured a place on the front row ahead of the championship leader Dan Ticktum

Ticktum was 0.127s off Shwartzman and a near-identical margin ahead of fourth-placed Enaam Ahmed.

Ralf Aron was atop the times when the field pitted for a change of tyres in the middle of the session but ended up fifth, just edging out fellow Estonian Juri Vips – who comes into the weekend just 12 points behind Motopark team-mate Ticktum.

The third-placed driver in the title race Marcus Armstrong had a day to forget, missing much of the second practice session and requiring an engine change.

That means he will serve a 10-place grid penalty for the first race, for which he was only eighth fastest in qualifying, behind Alex Palou.

Jehan Daruvala was Carlin’s best qualifier in ninth with Marino Sato completing the top 10 at the expense of Guan Yu Zhou.

Qualifying results