Euro F3 Hungaroring: Ticktum and Ahmed share pole for Sunday races

McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner and Red Bull Junior Ticktum left it until the very last lap to depose Ahmed for the fastest time by just 0.023 seconds in his Motopark Dallara-Volkswagen.

Ahmed had already clocked a 1m34.967s and a 1m34.960s in his Hitech GP Dallara-Mercedes, and the reigning BRDC British F3 champion looked likely to be celebrating a double pole, with race two's grid decided by fastest times and race three's by second fastest.

Ticktum had recorded a 1m34.999s, but had been dislodged for second by the Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes of Guan Yu Zhou, who lapped in 1m34.993s late in the session.

But Ticktum, whose Saturday win elevated him into the championship lead, left it until the last moment to pip Ahmed with a 1m34.937s.

Ticktum's earlier time was good enough for second on the race-three grid, meaning both races will feature he and Ahmed on the front row.

"I made a mistake on my second push lap, so I had a massive cooldown and the tyres came back to me," said Ticktum.

"I lost time in the last sector [on the final lap, due to the tyres being past their peak], but I made up more than enough in the first two sectors."

Zhou ended up third in front of Ferrari stablemate and fellow Prema runner Marcus Armstrong, with Hitech's Alex Palou fifth from the Carlin machine of Jehan Daruvala and the third Prema-run Ferrari junior, Robert Shwartzman.

On second-best times this quintet was reshuffled, with Armstrong moving up to third for race three, ahead of Daruvala, Zhou, Shwartzman and Palou.

Ben Hingeley continued his strong start to the season with eighth in his Hitech car ahead of Ferdinand Habsburg (Carlin) and Fabio Scherer (Motopark).

Prema's Mick Schumacher, who appeared to run into traffic, and Motopark's Juri Vips were outside the top 10, but on second-best times they were ninth and eighth respectively, with Habsburg completing the top 10 on the grid for race three.

Carlin made a decent step forward from its Saturday form, where its cars suffered among other things from lack of grip, but the team's pre-weekend points leader Sacha Fenestraz ended up a disappointing 13th and 12th.

Another fancied runner languishing in the order is Ralf Aron, who will line his Prema car up 15th for both races.

Qualifying one result

Qualifying two result