F3: Ocon beats Blomqvist to Hungary pole

Esteban Ocon narrowly held off Tom Blomqvist to secure pole position for the first Formula 3 European Championship race at Hungaroring.

Ocon made his mark reasonably early in the session, going fastest by almost eight tenths with eight minutes of the session remaining, before lowering his best time again to a 1m35.585s on the very next lap, which would ultimately become the pole time.

Blomqvist made his charge a couple of minutes later, first becoming the second driver into the 1m35s bracket with a 1m35.863s, before going agonizingly close to snaring pole by improving to within 0.084s of Ocon's time on the next lap.

With neither driver improving in the last few minutes, Ocon was able to hold on to take his sixth pole position in what is still his rookie year.

Max Verstappen finished the session third fastest – and the only other driver to get under the 1m36s mark – with a 1m35.881s. He will be joined on the second row by Ocon's Prema teammate Antonio Fuoco.

Lucas Auer recovered strongly from a disastrous practice session, in which he missed more than 40 minutes of running after a clash with Sean Gelael, by qualifying fifth, one spot ahead of his Mucke teammate Felix Rosenqvist, who was just sixth after going almost two tenths slower than he managed in the practice session.

The fourth row belonged to Carlin with Antonio Giovanazzi and Jordan King qualifying seventh and eighth respectively, while Gustavo Menezes and Felix Serralles rounded out the top 10.