European F3 Nurburgring: Qualifying hat-trick for Rosenqvist

The championship leader was always the man to beat, and his Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes was most-closely challenged by George Russell, who once again went second fastest, this time 0.220 seconds behind the Swedish pacesetter.

Rosenqvist's second-fastest time - which decides the grid for race three - was also the best, this time by 0.112 seconds from his team-mate, Canadian Ferrari protege Lance Stroll.

"All my laps there was a pack in front and I always caught Callum Ilott in the last corner, so that gave me a bit of understeer," said Rosenqvist, "although obviously I also took his tow on the back straight.

"I could have improved though, if it hadn't been for the traffic."

Stroll, who was caught in his own traffic quagmire in opening qualifying, was happy to take his second front-row start in F3, and backed that up with third for race two, just in front of another Prema runner, Jake Dennis.

Title contenders Antonio Giovinazzi (Carlin) and Charles Leclerc (Van Amersfoort Racing) ended up fifth and seventh respectively for race two, sandwiching Mucke Motorsport's Mikkel Jensen.

For race three, Giovinazzi moved up to fourth, behind third-placed Russell, with Dennis fifth, Jensen sixth and Leclerc seventh.

Nick Cassidy made it four Prema cars in the top eight in both classifications.

Rounding out the top 10 for race two are Santino Ferrucci (Mucke) and Alessio Lorandi (VAR), although Lorandi's grid penalty means that Callum Ilott takes 10th place.

For race three, Markus Pommer lines up ninth in his Motopark car, with Ilott again 10th.