F3: Ocon completes Pau pole sweep

Esteban Ocon continued his denial of Max Verstappen in the Formula 3 European Championship weekend at Pau by claiming pole position for both of Sunday's races.

Once again the Frenchman engaged in battle with the Dutch racer, and this time he earned pole by 0.057 second for race two, and 0.05sec for the final race, which is the 73rd Pau Grand Prix.

Ocon's Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes held the advantage over Verstappen's Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara-Volkswagen when the session was red flagged with four minutes remaining after Tatiana Calderon crashed backwards into the tire wall at the Foch chicane. When the session restarted there were no improvements, meaning Lotus F1 Junior Ocon has made it a clean sweep of the three poles for the weekend.

Topping the later group, and therefore starting alongside Ocon on the front row for both races, was Felix Rosenqvist, who at last ended his dismal run.

After struggling with electronics problems in first qualifying, the Swede put on a spectacular display in his Mucke Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes. Rosenqvist ended up just 0.005sec adrift of Ocon's best, his session also featuring a stoppage with a few minutes to go when Spike Goddard crashed on the exit of the Foch chicane.

Rosenqvist's efforts to grab pole when the session restarted were lurid, including a launching of his front end into the air as he grabbed too much of the curb at Foch.

Tom Blomqvist was closest to Rosenqvist in his group. The Anglo-Swede has now served his 10-place grid penalties, so will start his Jagonya Ayam with Carlin Dallara-VW from the second row in both races.

Behind Ocon and Verstappen in the first group was Jake Dennis, the Racing Steps-backed Brit continuing his strong weekend in his Carlin Dallara-VW to head Prema runner Dennis van de Laar and the Fortec Motorsport machine of John Bryant-Meisner.

In the second group, Antonio Giovinazzi's Jagonya Ayam with Carlin entry took third from Fortec's Mitch Gilbert, Jordan King (Carlin) and Lucas Auer, who could not repeat his efforts of earlier in his Mucke machine.

On second-best times the order is shuffled for the third race, with Gilbert taking a best-ever third-row start slot, followed by Auer, Giovinazzi and King.

Originally on Autosport.com