For the British Carlin team, the FIA Formula 3 European Championship round at the 5.901 kilometres long Silverstone Circuit is a home event. Driver Sacha Fenestraz (Carlin, 1m50.571s) seemed to be particularly motivated as a result: he presented his team with pole position for the first race of the weekend. Behind second-placed Guanyu Zhou (PREMA Theodore Racing, 1m50.611s), Daniel Ticktum (Motopark, 1m50.683s) and Jonathan Aberdein (Motopark, 1m50.683s) followed with identical lap times to one thousandth of a second.

The first half of qualifying didn’t produce a lot of on-track action, but things got really exciting in the second half. With five minutes remaining, Daniel Ticktum was in the lead, but then, Sacha Fenestraz managed to set a faster lap time. While the French Renault junior driver still improved in the remainder, Ticktum was unable to topple Fenestraz from first place. Instead, Guanyu Zhou, who moved up into second place just before qualifying was over, also outpaced the British Red Bull junior.

Behind Ticktum and Jonathan Aberdein, Marcus Armstrong (PREMA Theodore Racing, 1m50.695s) was classified fifth. The New Zealander, who is backed by Ferrari, came to Silverstone as the FIA Formula 3 European Championship points’ leader, but is only one point ahead of Ticktum.

Mick Schumacher (PREMA Theodore Racing, 1m50.744s) ended up sixth from Alex Palou (Hitech Bullfrog GP, 1m50.748s), Enaam Ahmed (Hitech Bullfrog GP, 1m50.868s), Jehan Daruvala (Carlin 1m50.965s) and Jüri Vips (Motopark, 1m51.021s). The times of Fenestraz in first place and tenth-placed Vips were only 0.45 seconds apart. 16-year-old newcomer Hon Chio Leong (Hitech Bullfrog GP, 1m52.416s) concluded his first-ever FIA Formula 3 European Championship qualifying in 23rd place.

Sacha Fenestraz (Carlin): “I am really happy to be on pole position here. The team and I have been working hard, particularly in the last fortnight, so that we are now back on top after Pau. Hopefully, we can keep up this level. I think that I haven’t delivered the best possible performance as a driver in the past qualifying sessions, but here, I got it in one lap and I am really happy with that. Things can continue like this.”