Hockenheim Euro F3: Verstappen pips Auer, Blomqvist to pole

The trio all shaded early pacesetter Felix Rosenqvist in the third quarter of the 20-minute session, and then - unusually for the Hankook tyres used in the series - there were no improvements in the final five minutes.

New Toro Rosso Formula 1 signing Verstappen's Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara-Volkswagen shaded the Mucke Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes of Auer by just 0.018 seconds, with Blomqvist's Jagonya Ayam with Carlin Dallara-VW only 0.074s adrift of pole.

Times were considerably faster than in free practice, in which Auer topped both sessions.

Blomqvist's team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi will line up alongside him on the second row, with another Carlin machine - that of Jordan King - taking fifth.

Champion Esteban Ocon languished down in sixth in a bad session by the standards of Prema Powerteam, whose next quickest driver, Antonio Fuoco, was 13th.

Mucke driver Rosenqvist finally fell to seventh, and is joined on the fourth row by the third Jagonya Ayam/Carlin car of Sean Gelael, the Indonesian putting in his best performance to date.

It is an all-Hispanic-American fifth row, with Puerto Rican Felix Serralles taking ninth place and Californian Gustavo Menezes joining his good friend.

Jake Dennis was only 18th fastest, and to add to his dismay the Racing Steps-backed Briton will have to start all three races with a 10-place grid penalty due to an engine failure in the dying moments of free practice. Quick work by the Carlin crew got him out for qualifying.

GP2 ace Stefano Coletti took 20th in the EuroInternational car - for the second year running the Monegasque is making his annual appearance in this event to qualify himself for the Macau Grand Prix.