Hockenheim European F3: Rosenqvist pips Giovinazzi to pole

With traffic causing huge problems in the 35-car field, the Swedish F3 veteran had just one crack at a hot lap, and it was enough to deny the Italian by 0.014 seconds.

Rosenqvist joined the session late in his Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes, and was yet to set a representative time when the red flags appeared after 10 minutes due to Alexander Albon skating into the gravel trap at the Sachskurve.

The Thai, who reported brake problems, dived inside Brandon Maisano but was unable to make the corner and only narrowly avoided the barriers.

Giovinazzi was seemingly alone among the frontrunners in finding a clear run of laps with his Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen.

The Jagonya Ayam protege reported that he was on a quicker final lap - which likely would have been good enough for pole - when the red flags truncated the session in the closing minutes due to Tatiana Calderon taking a high-speed trip into the gravel at Turn 1.

Both Rosenqvist and Giovinazzi praised their engineers - Paolo Angilella and Matt Ogle respectively - for helping them find clear space.

"I had only one lap where I could push in all three sectors, so I had no reference," said Rosenqvist. "I think I had another three tenths in the bag, but it's just strategy.

"The team did a really good job on communication and that played a big part."

Surprise of the session was Maximilian Gunther, who bounced back from his free practice crash to top the rookies and take third overall in his Mucke Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes.

Gunther, who knows Hockenheim well from two seasons in ADAC Formel Masters, held pole briefly, as did Jake Dennis - fastest at the time of the mid-session stoppage - and Raoul Hyman.

Charles Leclerc eventually moved up the order to claim fourth in his Van Amersfoort Racing car, with Prema's Ferrari protege Lance Stroll fifth and Dennis rounding out the top six.

Brandon Maisano made it all four Prema drivers in the top seven, with West-Tec-run Hyman claiming eighth from Carlin's Red Bull junior Callum Ilott and Motopark driver Markus Pommer.

Meanwhile, Briton George Russell - a winner in round one at Silverstone - was mystified to end up 20th after a disappointing session.

QUALIFYING ONE RESULTS: