Championship leader, Dennis Hauger snatched a dramatic pole position for Sunday’s main F3 Austrian race following a packed Friday of action at the Red Bull Ring.
Jack Doohan initially set the pace after topping a packed practice session in the morning but it was eventually Hauger who took pole position following an entertaining Qualifying full of traffic and incidents.
Now here is a full roundup of Friday’s F3 action at the Red Bull Ring.
Practice
A slow start to the session saw several drivers opt for two warm-up laps but once the quick laps got underway, Collet initially set the pace with 1m 20.904 before improving to 1m 20.548 which was deleted for exceeding track limits.
PREMA’s Dennis Hauger consequently inherited top spot on 1m 20.720 and led Collet plus Victor Martins at the halfway point of the session, before improving by 0.131 seconds to 1m 20.589 in the 27th minute.
Several drivers thereafter opted to switch to new tyres for their final runs with Doohan ultimately finishing fastest on 1m 19.745, ahead of PREMA’s Olli Caldwell and Hitech’s Jak Crawford as Logan Sargeant and Aleksandr Smolyar rounded out the top five.
Frederik Vesti meanwhile was fourth quickest at the checkered flag but his fastest lap time was deleted for exceeding track limits immediately afterwards, dropping the Dane to ninth as Hauger found himself seventh and the slowest of all three PREMA drivers after Arthur Leclerc was 0.023s quicker in sixth.
Campos’ Amaury Cordeel meanwhile enjoyed his best F3 session yet as he finished tenth with the top 18 overall finishing within one second of Doohan’s fastest lap time.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Jack Doohan | Trident | 1m 19.745 |
| 2 | Olli Caldwell | PREMA | + 0.225 |
| 3 | Jak Crawford | Hitech GP | + 0.229 |
| 4 | Logan Sargeant | Charouz | + 0.265 |
| 5 | Aleksandr Smolyar | ART GP | + 0.273 |
| 6 | Arthur Leclerc | PREMA | + 0.310 |
| 7 | Dennis Hauger | PREMA | + 0.333 |
| 8 | Jonny Edgar | Carlin | + 0.349 |
| 9 | Frederik Vesti | ART GP | + 0.389 |
| 10 | Amaury Cordeel | Campos | + 0.445 |
| 11 | Lorenzo Colombo | Campos | + 0.546 |
| 12 | Kaylen Frederick | Carlin | + 0.679 |
| 13 | Calan Williams | Jenzer | + 0.724 |
| 14 | Matteo Nannini | HWA Racelab | + 0.730 |
| 15 | Johnathan Hoggard | Jenzer | + 0.742 |
| 16 | Enzo Fittipaldi | Charouz | + 0.751 |
| 17 | David Schumacher | Charouz | + 0.789 |
| 18 | Juan Manuel Correa | ART GP | + 0.948 |
| 19 | Caio Collet | MP Motorsport | + 1.008 |
| 20 | Victor Martins | MP Motorsport | + 1.143 |
| 21 | Filip Ugran | Jenzer | + 1.197 |
| 22 | Ido Cohen | Carlin | + 1.200 |
| 23 | Oliver Rasmussen | HWA Racelab | + 1.204 |
| 24 | Rafael Villagomez | HWA Racelab | + 1.380 |
| 25 | Clement Novalak | Trident | + 1.400 |
| 26 | Roman Stanek | Hitech GP | + 1.572 |
| 27 | Laszlo Toth | Campos | + 1.662 |
| 28 | Ayumu Iwasa | Hitech GP | + 1.782 |
| 29 | Tijmen Van Der Helm | MP Motorsport | + 1.848 |
| 30 | Reshad De Gerus | Charouz | + 2.102 |
Qualifying
A frantic start to Qualifying saw everyone tussle over track position during their opening warm-up laps, with Caio Collet almost unintentionally slamming Arthur Leclerc into the barriers on the main straight.
Once the first set of flying laps got underway, it was Vesti who emerged fastest at the halfway point with 1m 20.153 ahead of Crawford, Sargeant, Doohan and Hauger.
Drama however dominated the second half of the session as Reshad De Gerus collided with a MP Motorsport as he left his pit box, having made a slow getaway despite his race engineer giving him the signal to quickly venture out into the pit-lane.
Rain then briefly fell in the pit lane as Ido Cohen brought his Carlin to a halt on the main straight to cause a seven minute red flag, before drivers once again tripped over each other in the search for track position as Calan Williams and Crawford both saw late laps ruined by traffic at Turn Nine.
In the end, it was Collet who snatched provisional pole position for Sunday’s main race by just 0.029s from Hauger, Vesti, Smolyar, Crawford, Clement Novalak, Doohan, Caldwell, Leclerc, Victor Martins, Matteo Nannini and Sargeant, as the American took reverse pole for Race One tomorrow (3 July).
Collet however had his time deleted post-session for exceeding track limits which gifted Hauger pole position and left the Brazilian fourth on the grid, as the top 24 drivers overall were split by just 0.964s.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Dennis Hauger | PREMA | 1m 19.726 |
| 2 | Frederik Vesti | ART GP | + 0.028 |
| 3 | Aleksandr Smolyar | ART GP | + 0.075 |
| 4 | Caio Collet | MP Motorsport | + 0.083 |
| 5 | Jak Crawford | Hitech GP | + 0.091 |
| 6 | Clement Novalak | Trident | + 0.103 |
| 7 | Jack Doohan | Trident | + 0.161 |
| 8 | Olli Caldwell | PREMA | + 0.174 |
| 9 | Arthur Leclerc | PREMA | + 0.249 |
| 10 | Victor Martins | MP Motorsport | + 0.277 |
| 11 | Matteo Nannini | HWA Racelab | + 0.344 |
| 12 | Logan Sargeant | Charouz | + 0.375 |
| 13 | Calan Williams | Jenzer | + 0.386 |
| 14 | David Schumacher | Trident | + 0.422 |
| 15 | Enzo Fittipaldi | HWA Racelab | + 0.462 |
| 16 | Kaylen Frederick | Carlin | + 0.509 |
| 17 | Oliver Rasmussen | HWA Racelab | + 0.600 |
| 18 | Jonny Edgar | Carlin | + 0.718 |
| 19 | Ayumu Iwasa | Hitech GP | + 0.737 |
| 20 | Lorenzo Colombo | Campos | + 0.908 |
| 21 | Tijmen Van Der Helm | MP Motorsport | + 0.946 |
| 22 | Roman Stanek | Hitech GP | + 0.950 |
| 23 | Amaury Cordeel | Campos | + 0.954 |
| 24 | Juan Manuel Correa | ART GP | + 0.964 |
| 25 | Reshad De Gerus | Charouz | + 1.036 |
| 26 | Rafael Villagomez | HWA Racelab | + 1.217 |
| 27 | Johnathan Hoggard | Jenzer | + 1.352 |
| 28 | Laszlo Toth | Campos | + 1.566 |
| 29 | Filip Ugran | Jenzer | + 1.725 |
| 30 | Ido Cohen | Carlin | + 1.810 |
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