At the 5.901 kilometres long Silverstone Circuit, rookie driver Fabio Scherer (Motopark) secured pole position for the 17th race of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship season, the best starting grid position of his career to date. The Swiss ended up ahead of Mick Schumacher (PREMA Theodore Racing) while Jüri Vips (Motopark) and Enaam Ahmed (Hitech Bullfrog GP) followed in third and fourth place. In the ranking of the second-fastest laps to determine the starting grid positions for the third race of the weekend, Estonian rookie Vips came out on top from Jonathan Aberdein (Motopark), Sacha Fenestraz (Carlin) and Schumacher.

Starting grid race two

Fabio Scherer (1m50.460s) moved up into first place just before the end of the session and managed to maintain this position until the chequered flag was out. Just a little bit later, Mick Schumacher (1m50.509s) claimed second place as he demoted Jüri Vips (1m50.510s) to third. The Estonian wanted to counter, but he was unable to beat Schumacher’s time. Thus, he had to make do with third place behind Scherer and Schumacher.

Enaam Ahmed (Hitech Bullfrog GP, 1m50.537s) was the best-placed British driver in fourth from Jonathan Aberdein (1m50.568s), Sacha Fenestraz (1m50.623s), points’ leader Marcus Armstrong (PREMA Theodore Racing, 1m50.663s), Daniel Ticktum (Motopark, 1m50.684s), Guanyu Zhou (PREMA Theodore Racing, 1m50.708s) and Robert Shvartzman (PREMA Theodore Racing, 1m50.752s). In the process, Shvartzman’s time was less than 0.3 seconds slower than Scherer in first place.

Starting grid race three

In the ranking of the second-fastest laps, Vips (1m50.543s) came out on top. His teammate Aberdein (1m50.656s) was classified second while Fenestraz (1m50.671s) ended up third. Next up behind the three rookies were Schumacher (1m50.686s), Armstrong (1m50.733s), Ahmed (1m50.736s), Ticktum (1m50.757s), Zhou (1m50.805s), Shvartzman (1m50.806s) and Alex Palou (Hitech Bullfrog GP, 1m50.858s).

Fabio Scherer (Motopark): “My first-ever pole position, I am really happy. It took a long time before things finally worked out, but the time comes when hard work pays off. And we really have been working hard. However, I also had to take in criticism. Generally, though, things currently are going better and better for me. I think we are on the right way.”

Jüri Vips (Motopark): “The top position in the ranking of the second-fastest laps is a nice feeling, although I am slightly disappointed that I ended up third, only one thousandth of a second behind Mick Schumacher. Still, I made a big step ahead from first to second qualifying, our efforts between the two sessions paid off. I am a rookie, but I have racked up less mileage in testing compared to most of the others. Therefore, I sometimes aren’t on the pace straight away in first qualifying at new tracks because I have to get to know them first.”