F3: Stroll beats Red Bull pair in wild session

Williams protege Lance Stroll grabbed pole position from two Red Bull juniors in a thrilling Formula 3 European Championship qualifying session at Imola. The top spot changed hands three times on the final lap, with Stroll first losing pole to 16-year-old Finnish rookie Niko Kari before Sergio Sette Camara went faster still.

Finally, Stroll crossed the line to snatch pole position from Sette Camara by 0.119 seconds to make a perfect start to a weekend on which the Prema Powerteam driver could wrap up the title. The Canadian had been supreme all day, comfortably topping both free practice sessions, although his pole for race one was 0.4s slower than he managed in the heat of the early afternoon.

Sette Camara almost provided the perfect riposte after a disastrous day – the Brazilian's Motopark car suffered an engine failure during free practice, which means that he is likely to face three 10-place grid penalties due to needing a new powerplant.

That comes after he was hit with an identical penalty over the preceding rounds at Spa and the Nurburgring. He then had problems early in qualifying and didn't even have a time on the board until the final minutes.

A penalty for Sette Camara would elevate reigning SMP Formula 4 champion Kari to his maiden front row start after a day on which he was consistently competitive.

George Russell and Anthoine Hubert were close to the pole battle and ended up fourth and fifth, respectively. Hitech GP driver Russell set a quickest first-sector time on the final-lap shootout, but pace was slightly lacking over the remainder of the circuit.

The Van Amersfoort Racing machine of Hubert was second as the checkered flag fell, but could not quite eke out any extra time over the final lap.

Prema's Nick Cassidy ended up sixth, ahead of Joel Eriksson (Motopark) and Callum Ilott (VAR). Next was David Beckmann, who caused a red flag 12 minutes into the 20-minute session - the Mucke Motorsport-run German had just set the fastest first sector to date but failed to emerge from the second, and dropped from third to ninth in the closing minutes.

Ferrari protege Guan Yu Zhou completed the top 10 in his Motopark car, and should share the fifth row with Ralf Aron (Prema) in the event of a Sette Camara penalty.

Stroll's chances of clinching the title improved even further with the performance of second-in-points Maximilian Gunther. The German missed almost all of free practice after losing concentration at the kink after Piratella and crashing, and could only qualify 17th in his rebuilt car.

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Originally on Autosport.com