European F3 Hungaroring: Ticktum secures second pole of 2018 season

The Motopark-run Red Bull Junior, winner of last November's Macau Grand Prix, emerged atop a four-way battle for pole with Hitech GP's Alex Palou and Prema Powerteam duo Guan Yu Zhou and Mick Schumacher.

Ticktum finally whisked his Dallara-Volkswagen around the Hungarian track 0.032 seconds quicker than the Dallara-Mercedes of Palou, both of them using two sets of Hankook tyres in the hot weather conditions, albeit with thunder and lightning in the distance.

"We definitely considered using one set [of the total of three allowed per meeting] because you could argue qualifying tomorrow is more important, because it decides the grid for two races," said Ticktum.

"But it was the right thing to do to get your eye in one set, because the references were there for the second set.

"The track was getting a lot better as the temperature dropped three or four degrees, and the lap was just put together - I probably could have extracted a bit more by pushing hard, but I only needed a 95-98% lap."

With Palou completing the front row, free practice pacesetter Zhou pipped Schumacher to third fastest. The five Prema Powerteam cars all used just one set of tyres, with Pau victor Zhou leading the quintet as they line up in third to seventh positions.

Behind Schumacher, Marcus Armstrong took fifth, ahead of Robert Shwartzman and Pau Grand Prix winner Ralf Aron.

Jonathan Aberdein stepped forward to lead Motopark's roster of Formula 4 graduates by taking an impressive eighth fastest, while Hitech's Enaam Ahmed and another Motopark car - that of Juri Vips - completed the top 10.

Carlin struggled all day, the drivers reporting difficulty in finding a balance in free practice and not really moving forward in qualifying.

The squad's three faster drivers all elected to use one set of tyres for qualifying, but the quickest of them, Ferdinand Habsburg, ended the session down in 11th position, with the team's championship leader Sacha Fenestraz in 13th.

Qualifying result