First qualifying of the weekend at the Red Bull Ring turned out to be a highly varied affair on track already, as many drivers alternated in the lead. At the end of the session, initially, Joel Eriksson (Motopark, 1:24.092 minutes) was on top, but the Swede was disallowed his fastest lap time for crossing the track limits, as had been the case with some other drivers before. Then, Maximilian Günther moved up into first place, but he was dropped to second for a yellow flag infringement, after which Callum Ilott inherited first position. Rookie driver Ben Barnicoat, who already racked up a pair of outright race wins this seasons, confirmed his good performance with his third place ahead of stalwart Lance Stroll.

Behind Mikkel Jensen (kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport, 1:24.091 minutes), rookie Joel Eriksson, George Russell (HitechGP, 1:24.156 minutes), Pedro Piquet (Van Amersfoort Racing, 1:24.328 minutes), rookie Ralf Aron (Prema Powerteam, 1:24.406 minutes) and Sérgio Sette Câmara (Motopark, 1:24.551 minutes) rounded out the top ten. For Brazilian driver Piquet, the son of three times’ Formula 1 world champion Nelson Piquet and a two times’ winner of his domestic Formula 3 championship, ninth place was his best FIA Formula 3 European Championship qualifying result to date.

Callum Ilott (Van Amersfoort Racing): “With the new tarmac, it wasn’t easy to warm up the tyres. Therefore, it took me a while before they had the right working temperature. Moreover, every one of us was looking for track position to get a clean lap. Eventually, however, I still got a good lap in. Initially I was third and was quite happy with that result, but now, I am all the way up front, which is making me even more happy. I didn’t expect this first place, but it is a nice surprise.”