Event: 05 Norisring
Session: Qualifying 1
Track: Norisring / DEU
Pole position: Jake Hughes (Hitech Grand Prix)
Weather: sunny, 23.5 °C

This weekend, Jake Hughes (Hitech Grand Prix, 0m48.231s) is racing at the Norisring in Nuremberg for the first time, but that did not hinder the Brit to secure pole position in first qualifying of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship. Lando Norris (Carlin, 0m48.233s) was only two thousandths of a second slower, he will be lining up second on the grid. The British rookie is another driver never to have raced at the 2.3 kilometres long Norisring before. Third place went to Brazilian Pedro Piquet (Van Amersfoort Racing, 0m48.246s) while Maximilian Günther (Prema Powerteam, 0m48.334s) was the best-placed German in fourth. Points’ leader Joel Eriksson (Motopark, 0m48.871s) had to make do with 17th place.

In bright sunshine, the young drivers from the FIA Formula 3 European Championship started their qualifying that had no lack of action throughout its 20 minutes’ duration. In the closing stages, Lando Norris, Pedro Piquet, Maximilian Günther and Jehan Daruvala (Carlin, 0m48.409s) in particular battled for first place, before Jake Hughes claimed the top spot in the final minute. Thus, he secured himself his maiden FIA Formula 3 European Championship pole position.

Pedro Piquet also enjoyed his best starting grid position in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship to date. He was classified third behind the British duo of Hughes and Norris, but still ahead of the two stalwarts Maximilian Günther and Callum Ilott (Prema Powerteam, 0m48:352s). Ferdinand Habsburg (Carlin, 0m48.371s) ended up sixth in his first qualifying at the street circuit in Nuremberg. The Austrian ranked ahead of Guanyu Zhou (Prema Powerteam, 0m48.379s), the two rookies Joey Mawson (Van Amersfoort Racing, 0m48.405s) and Jehan Daruvala, plus Harrison Newey (Van Amersfoort Racing, 0m48.411s) in seventh to tenth place. The lap times of all drivers were within 0.7 seconds.

Jake Hughes (Hitech Grand Prix): “It was a great qualifying. In free practice, we were still having a few issues and we were lacking pace. As we were four to five tenths of a second down on the front-runners, I didn’t expect to be in contention for pole position in qualifying. After free practice, we made a lot of changes on the car and all of a sudden, things went really well. Since the start of the year, I have been waiting to score such a result. At Budapest, it was going pretty well already and I am very happy that we were able to improve even more. Everybody knows that the start of the season wasn’t as we wanted it, so claiming pole position here now is even more beautiful.”