F3: Sette Camara fastest but Stroll inherits pole

Red Bell junior Sergio Sette Camara (pictured above) snatched top spot from Williams protege Lance Stroll in qualifying for the first Nurburgring Formula 3 European Championship race, but Stroll will start from pole.

On a circuit where Prema Powerteam dominated last year, championship leader Stroll looked to be heading for a predictable pole. His best three laps were quicker than anyone else had managed and team-mates Maximilian Gunther and Nick Cassidy completed a 1-2-3 for the Italian squad.

But the Motopark team's cars came on strong as the session progressed, Sette Camara vaulting into contention on the penultimate lap. The Brazilian then crossed the line after the flag had fallen with a 1m21.011s lap that bettered Stroll's previous best by 0.207 seconds.

However, Sette Camara is in the midst of serving a trio of 10-place grid penalties for an engine change in the most recent round at Spa - he has already taken one of them - meaning Stroll (below) will start from pole.

Cassidy also moved ahead of Gunther late on, so he will line up on the front row, with Gunther third.

George Russell will start from fourth position in his Hitech GP machine, in front of Guan Yu Zhou and recent Masters of F3 winner Joel Eriksson, who emphasized Motopark's strong form by locking out the third row for the Oschersleben-based team.

Ralf Aron makes it all four Prema cars in the top seven on the grid, while Van Amersfoort Racing appeared to lack outright pace, with Callum Ilott heading the Dutch squad's quartet in eighth.

The top 10 is completed by Niko Kari (Motopark) and Anthoine Hubert (VAR), with Sette Camara starting from 11th.

The grid is down to a low of 17 cars this weekend with the withdrawal of Carlin, although the whole field was covered by just 0.976s.

QUALIFYING RESULTS:

Originally on Autosport.com