Lynn tops tight GP3 qualifying

Alex Lynn registered his second pole position of the season in round two of the GP3 Series at the Red Bull Ring on Saturday morning in a thrillingly-competitive qualifying session.

In cool alpine conditions, with an air temp of only 12C, Lynn's session started badly when he went off at Turn 1 on his first flying lap. He quickly recovered his composure to set two identical 1m21.043s laps in his Carlin machine, and these stood as the fastest time on the first set of tyres.

As the track rubbered-in during the second runs, Lynn dropped down to sixth, as Marvin Kirchhoffer (ART) and Patrick Kujala (Manor) swapped the top spot between them. Then ART's Alex Fontana went quickest, just as Lynn got trapped in traffic. But with just 34 seconds remaining in the session, Lynn recorded a 1m20.585s to beat Fontana to P1 by 0.023s, with Manor's Dean Stoneman in third, 0.079s off the best time.

Lynn's chances of improving on his very last lap were thwarted by Stoneman, whom he caught at the apex of Turn 8 as his fellow Brit was returning to the pits.

Lynn's teammate Emil Bernstorff will start fourth, ahead of Kujala.

Jimmy Eriksson was sixth, from Kirchhoffer, Ritchie Stanaway and Nick Yelloly.