Thus, the German secured his maiden pole position in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship. At a drying track in the Belgian Ardennes, next up were Ralf Aron (PREMA Theodore Racing), Guanyu Zhou (PREMA Theodore Racing) and points’ leader Marcus Armstrong (PREMA Theodore Racing). In the ranking of the second-fastest lap times, used to determine the starting grid positions for the third race, Zhou came out on top from Armstrong, Robert Shvartzman (PREMA Theodore Racing) and Jehan Daruvala (Carlin).

Starting grid race two
Qualifying got underway on a wet track that dried out more and more as the 20 minutes’ session went on. As a result, the lap times got considerably faster. With under one minute remaining, Guanyu Zhou (2m11.367s) was still in first place, but then, Mick Schumacher (2m10.899s) moved up ahead of his Chinese team-mate. Behind him, Ralf Aron (2m11.179s), Zhou and Marcus Armstrong (2m11.585s) followed in second to fourth place. Enaam Ahmed (Hitech Bullfrog GP,2m11.690s) was classified fifth from Jüri Vips (Motopark, 2m11.760s), Fabio Scherer (Motopark, 2m11.762s), Shvartzman (2m11.800s), Ferdinand Habsburg (Carlin, 2m11.869s) and Daniel Ticktum (Motopark, 2m11.923s).

Starting grid race three
In the ranking of the second-fastest laps, nobody was faster than Zhou (2m11.658s). He ended up ahead of Armstrong (2m11.822s), Shwartzman (2m11.967s), Jehan Daruvala (2m12.098s), Jonathan Aberdein (Motopark, 2m12.157s), Vips (2m12.161s), Schumacher (2m12.164s), Ticktum (2m12.244s), Ahmed (2m12.274s) and Aron (2m12.315s).

Mick Schumacher (PREMA Theodore Racing): “After a rather mediocre first qualifying earlier this afternoon, I am very happy now having claimed pole position. We have been working on ourselves for months and now, we finally made it. That it happened at no other track but Spa-Francorchamps is a particularly beautiful feeling. I reckon that today, everything simply fitted together and the necessary luck was on my side.”

Guanyu Zhou (PREMA Theodore Racing): “Having claimed second pole position is great. Today, conditions were anything but easy, it was partly wet and partly already dry. Every lap was faster, which was also my goal. I made no mistake, but didn’t have a slipstream either. Having secured first place on the grid without a slipstream is making me particularly happy.”