Juncadella secures pole positions for F3 Euro Series race at Nurburgring

The Spaniard was only fourth overall at the midway point of the 30-minute session as his Prema Powerteam-mate Roberto Merhi led the way from the Mucke Motorsport cars of Nigel Melker and Felix Rosenqvist.

But with a fresh set of Kumho tyres bolted onto his Dallara-Mercedes, Juncadella set the fastest lap of the session in 1m22.675s to knock Rosenqvist off the top spot with five minutes to go and secure pole for Sunday's third race of the weekend.

With nobody able to match that time, Juncadella did not need to improve his mark, but he tried anyway and was able to get within 0.015s of his earlier effort, which was enough to also give him pole for Saturday's first race, for which the grid is set according to each driver's second fastest time.

A hot lap from Melker right at the end - just 0.136s slower than Juncadella's best effort - put the Mucke driver on the front row for race three, ahead of championship leader Merhi and Rosenqvist.

However, the Dutchman's next best was shy of Merhi's by a similarly tiny margin, meaning he will start race one from third place, ahead of Rosenqvist.

It was a disappointing session for Merhi's closest title challenger Marco Wittmann, who could only manage sixth on both grids. He was not even the top Signature driver as his team-mate Laurens Vanthoor qualified ahead of him for both of the 40-minute races, making him the top man with Volkswagen power.

Race 1 grid

Pos  Driver                  Car                     Time
 1.  D.Juncadella            Dallara/Mercedes        1m22.690s 
 2.  Roberto Merhi           Dallara/Mercedes        1m22.860s + 0.170
 3.  Nigel Melker            Dallara/Mercedes        1m22.882s + 0.192
 4.  Felix Rosenqvist        Dallara/Mercedes        1m22.898s + 0.208
 5.  Laurens Vanthoor        Dallara/Volkswagen      1m23.033s + 0.343
 6.  Marco Wittmann          Dallara/Volkswagen      1m23.201s + 0.511
 7.  Daniel Abt              Dallara/Volkswagen      1m23.336s + 0.646
 8.  Carlos Muñoz            Dallara/Volkswagen      1m23.453s + 0.763
 9.  G.Raimondo              Dallara/Mercedes        1m23.675s + 0.985
10.  Jimmy Eriksson          Dallara/Volkswagen      1m23.719s + 1.029
11.  Kuba Giermaziak         Dallara/Volkswagen      1m23.803s + 1.113
12.  Kimiya Sato             Dallara/Volkswagen      1m24.203s + 1.513