Prema's Gunther on F3 Red Bull Ring pole after Eriksson penalty

F3 rookie Eriksson, who raced at the Austrian circuit in last year's German F4 Championship, topped free practice and was at the top of the times for much of the qualifying session, but had his two quickest times disallowed for running too wide, relegating him to sixth in the order.

It provided further gloom for the Motopark team, whose truck was destroyed en route to the circuit by a fire that originated with a seized wheelbearing.

Van Amersfoort Racing's Callum Ilott briefly grabbed pole, only to be denied at the last gasp to the tune of 0.061 seconds by Prema Powerteam man Gunther.

In a confused last couple of laps, Sergio Sette Camara crashed at the final turn and Gunther set his pole time - including his fastest third-sector time - under yellow flags, although when asked by Autosport if he lifted off he said: "I did, I did, but honestly there was a lot of chaos on the last laps.

"But it was a good qualifying for us - it was very tight definitely but we did some good improvements since free practice and I'm very happy to be at the front."

Ben Barnicoat led the Hitech Grand Prix charge and will line up third, with Prema's series leader Lance Stroll joining him on the second row.

Mikkel Jensen ended up fifth in his Mucke Motorsport machine but the Dane - as well as Peter Li - has been penalised three places on the grid for crossing the pit-exit white line twice during free practice, so drops to eighth.

Those drops promoted Eriksson back up to fifth, with Hitech's George Russell alongside him on row three.

Motopark-run Ferrari protege Guan Yu Zhou will start seventh, with the penalised Jensen next and then Pedro Piquet (his best effort to date for Van Amersfoort) and Prema man Ralf Aron completing the top 10.

Two drivers started qualifying with very little track time from free practice.

Gearbox problems for David Beckmann cost him the first hour of the 80 minutes, and a fire in the assembly area meaning that Niko Kari - whose car had also been in the barbecued Motopark truck - had to sit out the duration.

RACE ONE QUALIFYING