His fiercest rival Jake Dennis (Prema Powerteam, 1:24.517 minutes), who temporarily was in first place, eventually had to make do with second position. The best-placed rookie, Lance Stroll (Prema Powerteam, 1:24.701 minutes) completed the success of the Prema Powerteam that locked out the first three places. Antonio Giovinazzi (Jagonya Ayam with Carlin, 1:24.751 minutes), the current FIA Formula 3 European Championship points’ leader, ended up in fourth place.

Early in qualifying, it already became clear that Felix Rosenqvist and Jake Dennis would be the men to beat in the battle for pole position. In their duel for first place on the grid, 23-year-old Rosenqvist initially had the upper hand, only for 20-year-old Dennis to topple him in the ranking with nine minutes remaining. Just before the end, Rosenqvist countered successfully and claimed back first place. His rival Dennis ended up second, 0.007 seconds down.

Behind the two Prema stalwarts, Lance Stroll secured third place and thus repeated his best FIA Formula 3 European Championship qualifying result to date. At Spa-Francorchamps, the 16-year-old Canadian already was third-fastest in qualifying. In the closing stages of the session, Stroll and fourth-placed Antonio Giovinazzi demoted Charles Leclerc (Van Amersfoort Racing, 1:24.764 minutes) to fifth place.

Similarly to Stroll, sixth-placed Sérgio Sette Câmara (Motopark, 1:24.899 minutes) repeated his best FIA Formula 3 European Championship result to date. George Russell (Carlin, 1:24.973 minutes), Alexander Albon (Signature, 1:24.978 minutes), Markus Pommer (Motopark, 1:25.035 minutes) and Gustavo Menezes (Jagonya Ayam with Carlin, 1:25.040 minutes) completed the top ten.