By alley - Sep 4, 2015, 9:31 AM ET

F3: Dennis leads Prema top three sweep

Jake Dennis edged out Nick Cassidy and Lance Stroll for a dominant Prema Powerteam 1-2-3 in European Formula 3 Championship qualifying at the Algarve round.

Dennis, who topped the second practice session, set his best lap of 1m42.217s in the final five minutes to knock Stroll from a shortlived spell at the top of the times. His advantage at that point was a mere 0.111 seconds, but Cassidy's flying lap in the final minute – which displaced Stroll from second – missed out on the race one pole by an even tighter 0.061s.

Cassidy had spent all but the final few minutes of the session languishing near the bottom of the order, before his late surge. His performance typified the qualifying session, with a clutch of four cars alone on track for the opening five minutes before the championship frontrunners joined the action just before the halfway mark of the 20 minute session. It led to a flurry of late charges into the top 10, with Marcus Pommer leading the advances, following the Prema trio into fourth place after briefly leading the session.

Another late climber was Signature's Alexander Albon, who steadily climbed the order with a run of quick laps and his best effort rewarded him with fifth.

Charles Leclerc was running as low as 21st but he and Felix Rosenqvist set late laps to secure sixth and seventh, respectively.

The top 10 was then rounded out by early pacesetter George Russell, who gradually slid down the times before recovering to eighth, ahead of championship leader Antonio Giovinazzi and Callum Ilott.

QUALIFYING ONE TIMES:

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Time	Gap
1	Jake Dennis	Prema Powerteam	Dallara/Mercedes	1m42.217ss	1m42.217s
2	Nick Cassidy	Prema Powerteam	Dallara/Mercedes	1m42.278ss	0.061s
3	Lance Stroll	Prema Powerteam	Dallara/Mercedes	1m42.328ss	0.111s
4	Markus Pommer	Motopark	Dallara/Volkswagen	1m42.442ss	0.225s
5	Alexander Albon	Signature	Dallara/Volkswagen	1m42.523ss	0.306s
6	Charles Leclerc	Van Amersfoort Racing	Dallara/Volkswagen	1m42.615ss	0.398s
7	Felix Rosenqvist	Prema Powerteam	Dallara/Mercedes	1m42.625ss	0.408s
8	George Russell	Carlin	Dallara/Volkswagen	1m42.672ss	0.455s
9	Antonio Giovinazzi	Jagonya Ayam with Carlin	Dallara/Volkswagen	1m42.684ss	0.467s
10	Callum Ilott	Carlin	Dallara/Volkswagen	1m42.703ss	0.486s
11	Mikkel Jensen	KFZTeile24 Mucke Motorsport	Dallara/Mercedes	1m42.748ss	0.531s
12	Sergio Sette Camara	Motopark	Dallara/Volkswagen	1m42.762ss	0.545s
13	Santino Ferrucci	KFZTeile24 Mucke Motorsport	Dallara/Mercedes	1m42.765ss	0.548s
14	Dorian Boccolacci	Signature	Dallara/Volkswagen	1m42.781ss	0.564s
15	Maximilian Gunther	KFZTeile24 Mucke Motorsport	Dallara/Mercedes	1m42.810ss	0.593s
16	Alexander Sims	HitechGP	Dallara/Mercedes	1m42.845ss	0.628s
17	Arjun Maini	Van Amersfoort Racing	Dallara/Volkswagen	1m42.853ss	0.636s
18	Pietro Fittipaldi	Fortec Motorsports	Dallara/Mercedes	1m42.896ss	0.679s
19	Ryan Tveter	Jagonya Ayam with Carlin	Dallara/Volkswagen	1m42.962ss	0.745s
20	Sam MacLeod	Motopark	Dallara/Volkswagen	1m42.967ss	0.750s
21	Nabil Jeffri	Motopark	Dallara/Volkswagen	1m42.994ss	0.777s
22	Gustavo Menezes	Jagonya Ayam with Carlin	Dallara/Volkswagen	1m43.046ss	0.829s
23	Alessio Lorandi	Van Amersfoort Racing	Dallara/Volkswagen	1m43.068ss	0.851s
24	Raoul Hyman	Team West-Tec F3	Dallara/Mercedes	1m43.085ss	0.868s
25	Matt Rao	Fortec Motorsports	Dallara/Mercedes	1m43.194ss	0.977s
26	Michele Beretta	KFZTeile24 Mucke Motorsport	Dallara/Mercedes	1m43.283ss	1.066s
27	Matt Solomon	Double R Racing	Dallara/Mercedes	1m43.320ss	1.103s
28	Tatiana Calderon	Carlin	Dallara/Volkswagen	1m43.350ss	1.133s
29	Julio Moreno	ThreeBond with T-Sport	Dallara/NBE	1m43.507ss	1.290s
30	Zhi Cong Li	Fortec Motorsports	Dallara/Mercedes	1m43.683ss	1.466s
31	Andy Chang	Fortec Motorsports	Dallara/Mercedes	1m43.691ss	1.474s
32	Mahaveer Raghunathan	Motopark	Dallara/Volkswagen	1m44.132ss	1.915s