Juncadella boosts F3 Euro Series title hopes with a brace of poles at the Nurburgring
Daniel Juncadella gave his Formula 3 Euro Series title hopes a welcome boost by taking a pair of pole positions for this weekend's triple-header at the Nurburgring
The 21-year-old Spaniard, who leads the standings with half the season gone, took his Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes around the short version of the German circuit in 1m23.096s to claim the top spot overall and pole for Sunday morning's third race.
That marker, set with three minutes remaining, was then followed-up with a 1m23.240s to ensure that his second-best time was also the quickest of anybody, ensuring pole for Saturday morning's opener as well.
In fact, Juncadella's second-best time was faster than anybody else's overall best, meaning that the 1m23.289s set by long-time session leader Felix Rosenqvist was only good enough to give the Mucke driver second place on the grid for race three and third for the opener.
The sensation of the session was Juncadella's Prema team-mate Sven Muller, who stole a spot on the front row for race one and third for race three, despite having sustained a hairline fracture in his right elbow less than three weeks ago in a crash at Spa.
Juncadella's team-mate and title rival Raffaele Marciello, who leads the FIA European F3 Championship - of which the Nurburgring weekend is also a round - took a fourth and a fifth, as did Mucke's Pascal Wehrlein.
Carlin's Will Buller had to make do with sixth and ninth spots while his team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr had a pair of sevenths. These, and Jazeman Jaafar, who is not registered for points, were the best of the drivers using Volkswagen power.
Alexander Sims, who is making his first F3 appearance of the year with T-Sport, traded the top spot with Rosenqvist early on, but ended up with a pair of eighths in his Nissan-engined Dallara.
As usual, the grid for race two will be based on the race one finishing order, with the top eight reversed for the start.
Race one qualifying: Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Daniel Juncadella Prema Dallara-Merc 1m23.212s 2. Sven Muller Prema Dallara-Merc 1m23.413s + 0.201s 3. Felix Rosenqvist Mucke Dallara-Merc 1m23.434s + 0.222s 4. Pascal Wehrlein Mucke Dallara-Merc 1m23.464s + 0.252s 5. Raffaelle Marciello Prema Dallara-Merc 1m23.510s + 0.298s 6. Jazeman Jaafar Carlin Dallara-VW 1m23.557s + 0.345s 7. Carlos Sainz Jr Carlin Dallara-VW 1m23.604s + 0.392s 8. Alexander Sims T-Sport Dallara-Nissan 1m23.607s + 0.395s 9. Will Buller Carlin Dallara-VW 1m23.693s + 0.481s 10. Michael Lewis Prema Dallara-Merc 1m23.746s + 0.534s 11. Emil Bernstorff Ma-con Dallara-VW 1m23.836s + 0.624s 12. Tom Blomqvist Ma-con Dallara-VW 1m23.862s + 0.650s 13. Andrea Roda Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc 1m24.552s + 1.340s 14. Luis Sa Silva Angola Dallara-Merc 1m24.784s + 1.572s 15. Lucas Wolf URD Dallara-Merc 1m24.801s + 1.589s 16. Sandro Zeller Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc 1m25.254s + 2.042s 17. Spike Goddard T-Sport Dallara-Mugen 1m27.294s + 4.082s Race three qualifying: Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Daniel Juncadella Prema Dallara-Merc 1m23.096s 2. Felix Rosenqvist Mucke Dallara-Merc 1m23.289s + 0.193s 3. Sven Muller Prema Dallara-Merc 1m23.337s + 0.241s 4. Raffaelle Marciello Prema Dallara-Merc 1m23.364s + 0.268s 5. Pascal Wehrlein Mucke Dallara-Merc 1m23.376s + 0.280s 6. Will Buller Carlin Dallara-VW 1m23.440s + 0.344s 7. Carlos Sainz Jr Carlin Dallara-VW 1m23.511s + 0.415s 8. Alexander Sims T-Sport Dallara-Nissan 1m23.538s + 0.442s 9. Jazeman Jaafar Carlin Dallara-VW 1m23.545s + 0.449s 10. Michael Lewis Prema Dallara-Merc 1m23.599s + 0.503s 11. Tom Blomqvist Ma-con Dallara-VW 1m23.660s + 0.564s 12. Emil Bernstorff Ma-con Dallara-VW 1m23.762s + 0.666s 13. Andrea Roda Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc 1m24.336s + 1.240s 14. Luis Sa Silva Angola Dallara-Merc 1m24.722s + 1.626s 15. Lucas Wolf URD Dallara-Merc 1m24.739s + 1.643s 16. Sandro Zeller Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc 1m25.089s + 1.993s 17. Spike Goddard T-Sport Dallara-Mugen 1m26.804s + 3.708s
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Alpine confident for 'good news' in Habsburg injury recovery
Ferrari "made too many mistakes" for podium fight at F1 Chinese GP
What is a wildcard in MotoGP and why is it used?
How abruptly slowing down helped WRT to WEC Imola victory
Why Alpine’s rigorous training camp yields telling insights into its juniors
Why F1's junior logjam isn't entirely a product of current issues
Ranking the top 10 drivers on F1's undercard in 2023
Ranking the 10 best drivers from F1's junior series in 2022
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments