Blomqvist and Ocon secure the poles
Tom Blomqvist and Esteban Ocon secured the pole positions for the FIA Formula 3 European Championship season opener at Silverstone. Blomqvist (Jagonya Ayam with Carlin) beat rookie Ocon in Q1 by the minimal margin of 0.002. In the second session, Prema Powerteam‘s driver claimed the best starting grid position from hist team mate Nicholas Latifi. Ocon and the other Prema Powerteam’s rookie Antonio Fuoco locked out the front row of the grid for the third race.
Blomqvist set the best lap time of 1:51.327 in Q1, only 0.002 seconds fastest than Lotus F1 junior Ocon. Max Verstappen, who dominated for Van Amersfoort Racing in free practice 2, ended fourth in front of Fuoco. Félix Serrallés provided a good FIA Formula 3 European Championship debut for his team West-Tec F3 by claiming fifth place. He ended up ahead of the second-fastest British driver, Jordan King (Carlin), who was sixth.
In second qualifying, Ocon reversed the order and secured first place. His team-mate Latifi ended up second from Blomqvist, who only moved up into third position in the final stages of the session. He demoted Fuoco, the best-placed rookie, to fourth place. In the final minutes, Antonio Giovinazzi (Jagonya Ayam with Carlin) moved up into fifth place from Verstappen.
With the second-fastest laps of every driver in second qualifying used to determine the starting grid positions for the third race of the weekend, Ocon secured two of the three possible pole positions.
Results
