Red Bull junior Hadjar takes maiden FIA F3 pole position at Red Bull Ring

Isack Hadjar won the Sprint Race at Silverstone less than a week ago, and continued his form into the FIA Formula 3 Championship‘s visit to the Red Bull Ring by putting his Red Bull Racing-liveried Hitech GP car onto pole position for the Feature Race.

He will lead Championship leader Victor Martins away from the line on Sunday morning, ahead of Oliver Bearman who led the Prema Racing trio in what’s becoming a stellar rookie season.

Kaylen Frederick picked up his best FIA F3 finish at Silverstone, and sat just behind the fastest man in Free Practice, Arthur Leclerc to end the session fifth.

The track had fully dried out as Qualifying got underway, but the 30-car field struggled to find optimum track position around one of the shortest circuits on the calendar.

Martins set the early benchmark with a 1:19:980, a couple of tenths on Leclerc’s fastest time from Practice.

Bearman has stood on every step of the podium except the top one so far and sits as the second-highest-placed rookie after eight races to date.

He matched Martins to within a tenth, with Leclerc, Frederick and Roman Stanek (Trident) rounding out the top five after the first set of competitive times came in.

Prema received a 500 euro fine for releasing the British driver into the path of Zak O’Sullivan, causing a low-speed collision as the drivers looked to get back out on track on fresh tyres midway through the session.

The second half of Qualifying became something of a shambles resembling Formula 1‘s last gambit at Monza in 2019 as the field jockeyed for a tow and risked costing themselves time to get a lap in as they tried to position themselves for a tow their rivals were reluctant to give and were looking for themselves.

Hadjar went quickest from compatriot Martins in the latter stages by the narrowest of margins, extending his margin just before Zdenek Chovanec stopped on the pit entry and ended the session with two minutes remaining.

Hadjar will start the Feature Race from pole, with Caio Collet lining up first for the Sprint Race on Saturday morning.

FIA Formula 3 Championship Red Bull Ring Qualifying Results: