GP3: Albon takes dramatic pole

Alexander Albon claimed pole position for the GP3 round at Silverstone in an eventful qualifying session.

The Anglo-Thai languished in 20th place until his final run in a session interrupted by two rain showers and a pair of red flags, before putting in a lap that put him three quarters of a second clear of ART Grand Prix team-mate Charles Leclerc.

Leclerc was on a lap that looked set to be fastest, only for the Ferrari junior to have the door closed on him into Club by Santino Ferrucci. This resulted in damage to Leclerc's front wing and gave Haas development driver Ferrucci's car a puncture.

Ferrucci parked temporarily in the run-off out of Village, causing the second red flag and seriously hampering the second runs of many drivers. That was because, as the session restarted with just three minutes on the clock, the rain returned with greater intensity and no one improved.

Leclerc's grid penalty carried over from the Red Bull Ring relegates him to seventh and elevates Sandy Stuvik to an all-Thai front row, the Trident driver getting his second run in just at the right time to set a time 0.942s adrift of Albon.

Arjun Maini, making his GP3 debut with Jenzer Motorsport, was another to get an early second run, and he will start third. He shares the second row with Matevos Isaakyan, the Russian setting his lap despite an off at Village earlier on that sent him airborne.

Jake Hughes (DAMS) and Antonio Fuoco (Trident) had been first and second after the opening runs, the two separated by a thousandth.

They were two of the drivers who'd restarted the session after the first red flag on wet-weather Pirellis, meaning that when they got their first runs in on slicks it was later in the session. But that also meant they hit the worst of the weather when they went for their second runs, and they will line up on the third row.

Eighth fastest was Akash Nandy, the only other driver for Jenzer this weekend after Oscar Tunjo and Richard Gonda parted company with the Swiss squad for what are understood to be budgetary reasons. But Nandy is another to carry a grid penalty over from the Red Bull Ring, for speeding in the pitlane, relegating him to 13th.

That puts ART's Nirei Fukuzumi, who was another on wets early on and was third to Hughes and Fuoco before the final runs, up to eighth. Ralph Boschung (Koiranen) and Giuliano Alesi (Trident), who is returning after his massive Red Bull Ring practice shunt, will complete the top 10.

Matt Parry set a time good enough for second only to have it disallowed for exceeding track limits, so he starts 11th ahead of Arden duo Jake Dennis and Jack Aitken, who were first and second for a while on the opening runs. Another expected frontrunner to lose out in the qualifying lottery was Nyck de Vries, who was 20th. Kevin Jorg caused the first red flag when he crashed at Stowe.

Originally on Autosport.com