Charles Leclerc (Van Amersfoort Racing, 1:22.845 minutes) will be starting from second place, followed by Maximilian Günther (kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport, 1:22.581 minutes), points’ leader Antonio Giovinazzi (Jagonya Ayam with Carlin, 1:23.296 minutes), Callum Ilott (Carlin, 1:22.644 minutes) and Alexander Albon (Signature, 1:23.375 minutes).

Because of the large number of competitors and the relatively short track of 2.76 kilometres, FIA Formula 3 European Championship qualifying was split up into two groups. First out was group A that, with Antonio Giovinazzi, Charles Leclerc and Felix Rosenqvist (Prema Powerteam, 1:23.950 minutes) included the first three placed drivers from the current FIA Formula 3 European Championship standings.

Five minutes into the session, Leclerc moved up into first place of his group, just before a spun by Indian Mahaveer Raghunathan (Motopark, 1:27.678 minutes) and increasing rain caused a brief interruption. Once the action had resumed, nobody was able to take first place away from Leclerc. Every time when one of his rivals threatened to challenge his fastest time, the Monegasque upped his speed and went even faster around the difficult street circuit at the foot of the Pyrenees. Eventually, he had a margin of 0.451 seconds from Antonio Giovinazzi. Alexander Albon and Mikkel Jensen (kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport, 1:23.570 minutes) only moved up into third and fourth place of their group in the final seconds of the session and thus demoted Arjun Maini (Van Amersfoort Racing, 1:23.723 minutes) to fifth place.

A few minutes later, drivers in Group B were slightly more fortunate with the weather: rain stopped and the track slowly dried. There were many position changes at the top of the time sheets, with Jake Dennis, Alessio Lorandi (Van Amersfoort Racing, 1:22.651 minutes) and Maximilian Günther among the drivers to temporarily hold first place. Eventually, Dennis came to the fore, notwithstanding a brief interruption caused by an accident involving Ryan Tveter (Jagonya Ayam with Carlin, 1:24.446 minutes) and Michele Beretta (kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport, 1:23.514 minutes). Because the Prema driver’s time was faster than Leclerc’s, who came out on top in Group A, Dennis will be allowed to start the first race in Pau from pole position.

Maximilian Günther, Callum Ilott, Alessio Lorandi and George Russell (Carlin, 1:22.945 minutes) followed in second to fifth place in Group B. They will line up behind pole setter Dennis in third, fifth, seventh and ninth respectively. The even starting grid positions will go to the drivers from Group A who will line up behind Leclerc in second place on the grid in the order of their respective qualifying results.

Jake Dennis (Prema Powerteam): “Qualifying was very good. In my first attempt, I was held up by traffic, but it was still enough for second place while I knew that there was much more in store. After the red flags, I pushed it to the maximum once again and that was enough to claim pole position. Today, my car was really great, especially in the closing stages of qualifying.”