Nick Cassidy (Prema Powerteam, 1:42.278 minutes) and Lance Stroll (Prema Powerteam, 1:42.328 minutes) followed the 20-year-old Brit in second and third place respectively to secure a clean sweep of the top three for Prema drivers. In bright sunshine at the 4.684 kilometres long Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, Markus Pommer (Motopark, 1:42.442 minutes), Alexander Albon (Signature, 1:42.523 minutes) and Charles Leclerc (Van Amersfoort Racing, 1:42.615 minutes) occupied fourth to sixth place.

Jake Dennis moved up into first place with five minutes remaining and defended this position until the end of the session. For Nick Cassidy, who is having his first FIA Formula 3 European Championship outing of the season at Portimão, qualifying was a different affair. The 21-year-old New Zealander only moved up into second place in the final stages and thus demoted his team-mate Lance Stroll to third position. Nevertheless, the 16-year-old Canadian also had reason to be happy as he was the best-placed rookie in the field of the 32 drivers.

The fourth Prema driver, Felix Rosenqvist (Prema Powerteam, 1:42.625 minutes) only followed behind Pommer, Albon and Leclerc. The experienced Swede is the Italian team’s spearhead in the battle for the FIA Formula 3 European Championship title, he is currently second in the drivers’ standings. The current points’ leader is Antonio Giovinazzi (Jagonya Ayam with Carlin, 1:42.684 minutes). The Italian, who made his DTM debut one week earlier, ended up ninth in qualifying at Portimão behind George Russell (Carlin, 1:42.672 minutes). Callum Ilott (Carlin, 1:42.703 minutes) rounded out the top ten.

Next to Cassidy, Alexander Sims (Hitech GP, 1:42.845 minutes) is another driver to make his FIA Formula 3 European Championship comeback at the Algarve. Together with his team Hitech GP, also competing in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship for the first time, the Brit ended up in 16th place.

Jake Dennis (Prema Powerteam): “I am a bit shocked, really, because my lap wasn’t that good at all. I approached the last sector two tenths down, but somehow, I managed to find three tenths in the last sector. I am really happy to be on pole position! The car was awesome. In the two-day test, things didn’t go as planned, we probably took the wrong direction in set-up, but we worked hard to get it sorted for today. This morning, the car was great already, so we left it as it was, and it turned out to be very good for qualifying.”