Masters of F3: Eriksson beats Ilott to win qualifying race

Eriksson will now start the main race on Sunday from pole position. The Motopark driver experienced a better start from the front row, and passed polesitter Callum Ilott straight away.

Not only did Swede make up a position, behind teammate Niko Kari moved up to third, finding his way past GP3 regular Alex Albon.

Meanwhile, Ferrari junior Guan Yu Zhou had the worst getaway of all, losing five positions after starting from fifth.

Up ahead, Eriksson managed to build a margin by lapping just a couple of tenths faster than Ilott, who maintained position with no pressure from Kari.

With differences up to two seconds between the drivers, the Formula 3 racers chose not to take too many risk and drop out.

Eriksson then cruised to victory after completing 12 laps, in front of Ilott and Kari. Albon took fourth ahead of Red Bull junior Sergio Sette Camara.

Van Amersfoort drivers Pedro Piquet and Anthoine Hubert were sixth and seventh respectively, with Carlin's Alessio Lorandi eighth.

The top 10 was rounded by Mucke Motorsport's David Beckmann in ninth and Zhou.

Carlin drivers American Colton Herta and Indian Ameya Vaidyanathan only ran for two laps before retiring due to technical problems.

Sam MacLeod also parked his Fortec-run machine in the pitlane after eight laps.

The main race over 25 laps takes place on Sunday afternoon. The 16 participants will vie to be successor to Antonio Giovinazzi, who won last year’s edition, and follow in the footsteps of previous winners like Lewis Hamilton, Nico Hulkenberg and Max Verstappen.