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Jake Hughes and Callum Ilott take wet-weather poles in European F3

Jake Hughes and Callum Ilott dramatically claimed the pole positions for Sunday's two Formula 3 European Championship races at the Nurburgring on a soaking wet track

Hughes emerged from a late fight with fellow Brits Ilott and Lando Norris to grab the fastest time of the session on the final lap, giving him pole for race two in his Hitech GP Dallara-Mercedes by 0.310 seconds from Ilott as thunder and lightning circled the circuit.

Ilott had experienced a nightmare session up until the final couple of minutes, repeatedly running wide in his Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes and even taking to the escape road at the Turn 5 hairpin on three successive laps.

With one minute remaining he completed a lap that vaulted him from 19th to pole.

Ilott's final lap should have been quicker still, but an oversteer moment exiting the final corner cost him time, although this lap gave him pole for race three - based on second-fastest times - by 0.162s over Norris.

Norris, third overall, was on to improve on the final lap, and his Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen was a quarter of a second up on his first-sector time from his best lap, but unfortunate positioning in traffic meant he had to overtake Max Defourny and was then behind Ameya Vaidyanathan at the final corner.

Even so, that lap - which the team doubted would have leapfrogged him above Hughes's overall best - was good enough for second on the grid for race three.

Hughes had to make do with third in the line-up for race three, but was delighted with his second pole of the season.

"I was praying for it to rain in the assembly area," he said.

"All through Q1 and race one it's been wet but not torrential, and we were always quick at the start and then fade as it got drier, so I was confident that if it stayed wet it'd be mega.

"The car was great whenever I pushed - it was just a case of trying to compromise between giving myself space and keeping the tyre temperature up."

After his early braking dramas, Ilott remarked: "I just had to make it work in the last two laps - they weren't amazing laps compared to my lap in Q1, but obviously it wasn't too bad."

Tadasuke Makino kept up his strong form this weekend by taking fourth overall, the Hitech-run Honda junior heading Carlin's Ferdinand Habsburg, while another Hitech runner - Ralf Aron - was on provisional pole during the middle of the session before slipping to sixth ahead of Prema's Ferrari protege Guan Yu Zhou.

This quartet were reshuffled on second-best times for race three, finishing in the order Aron, Zhou, Habsburg and Makino.

Van Amersfoort Racing team-mates Joey Mawson, Defourny and Harrison Newey rounded out the top 10, with Mawson and debutant Defourny doubling up on eighth and ninth spots for race three, and Jehan Daruvala moving up to complete the fifth row.

Current points runner-up Maximilian Gunther had a bad session, looking as though he was suffering similar braking problems to team-mate Ilott, on his way to 15th and 14th positions, while Joel Eriksson was even worse off, ending up 17th and 16th.

Race two starting grid

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap
1 Jake Hughes Hitech GP Dallara/Mercedes 1m37.002s -
2 Callum Ilott Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 1m37.312s 0.310s
3 Lando Norris Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m37.445s 0.443s
4 Tadasuke Makino Hitech GP Dallara/Mercedes 1m37.502s 0.500s
5 Ferdinand Habsburg Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m37.539s 0.537s
6 Ralf Aron Hitech GP Dallara/Mercedes 1m37.710s 0.708s
7 Guanyu Zhou Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 1m37.735s 0.733s
8 Joey Mawson Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m37.777s 0.775s
9 Max Defourny Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m37.805s 0.803s
10 Harrison Newey Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m38.060s 1.058s
11 Nikita Mazepin Hitech GP Dallara/Mercedes 1m38.121s 1.119s
12 Jehan Daruvala Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m38.221s 1.219s
13 Sacha Fenestraz Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m38.238s 1.236s
14 Marino Sato Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m38.634s 1.632s
15 Maximilian Guenther Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 1m38.696s 1.694s
16 Pedro Piquet Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m38.889s 1.887s
17 Joel Eriksson Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m39.047s 2.045s
18 David Beckmann Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m40.100s 3.098s
19 Ameya Vaidyanathan Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m40.223s 3.221s
20 Mick Schumacher Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 1m40.302s 3.300s
21 Keyvan Andres Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m40.712s 3.710s
22 Petru Florescu Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m40.769s 3.767s

Race three starting grid

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap
1 Callum Ilott Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 1m37.386s -
2 Lando Norris Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m37.548s 0.162s
3 Jake Hughes Hitech GP Dallara/Mercedes 1m37.577s 0.191s
4 Ralf Aron Hitech GP Dallara/Mercedes 1m37.744s 0.358s
5 Guanyu Zhou Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 1m38.038s 0.652s
6 Ferdinand Habsburg Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m38.069s 0.683s
7 Tadasuke Makino Hitech GP Dallara/Mercedes 1m38.114s 0.728s
8 Joey Mawson Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m38.219s 0.833s
9 Max Defourny Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m38.298s 0.912s
10 Jehan Daruvala Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m38.330s 0.944s
11 Harrison Newey Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m38.476s 1.090s
12 Nikita Mazepin Hitech GP Dallara/Mercedes 1m38.508s 1.122s
13 Sacha Fenestraz Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m38.723s 1.337s
14 Maximilian Guenther Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 1m38.873s 1.487s
15 Pedro Piquet Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m39.079s 1.693s
16 Joel Eriksson Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m39.184s 1.798s
17 Marino Sato Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m39.492s 2.106s
18 David Beckmann Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m40.223s 2.837s
19 Ameya Vaidyanathan Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m40.297s 2.911s
20 Mick Schumacher Prema Powerteam Dallara/Mercedes 1m40.307s 2.921s
21 Keyvan Andres Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m41.219s 3.833s
22 Petru Florescu Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m41.724s 4.338s


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