Red Bull Ring GP3: Russell claims maiden pole

Russell, a race winner in the European Formula 3 championship, set a best lap of 1m19.114s as the top five runners all set times within 0.2-seconds of the top spot.

Aitken, who had held provisional pole after the first runs had been completed at the Austrian circuit, could not improve on his final run and the Renault F1 junior driver ended up 0.072s adrift of his fellow British racer.

Dorian Boccolacci finished third for Trident ahead of reigning Euroformula Open champion Leonardo Pulcini and his Arden International teammate Steijn Schothorst.

Giuliano Alesi, son of F1 race winner Jean, made a late improvement to take sixth place just in front of fellow Trident driver Ryan Tveter and ART’s Anthoine Hubert.

Alesi was one of a number of drivers to have off-track moments as the GP3 field found the limit at the short, 10-turn track.

The French driver, who is also a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy, skated across the gravel at the exit of the downhill right-hander of Turn 4 as the 30-minute session approached half distance.

He managed to keep his car away from the wall and was able to rejoin via an escape road at the edge of the track.

Red Bull junior driver Niko Kari finished ninth, as Barcelona feature race winner and current championship leader, Nirei Fukuzumi, completed the top 10 in the final ART car.

Jenzer Motorsport pair Alessio Lorandi and Arjun Maini, who won the sprint race last time out in Spai, finished 11th and 12th respectively.

Practice pace-setter Marcos Siebert finished down in 18th place, with Sauber F1 development driver Tatiana Calderon bringing up the rear of the field for DAMS.

Qualifying results

Cla	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	George Russell	ART Grand Prix	1'19.114
2	Jack Aitken	ART Grand Prix	1'19.186	0.072
3	Dorian Boccolacci	Trident	1'19.255	0.141
4	Leonardo Pulcini	Arden International	1'19.258	0.144
5	Steijn Schothorst	Arden International	1'19.292	0.178
6	Giuliano Alesi	Trident	1'19.412	0.298
7	Ryan Tveter	Trident	1'19.425	0.311
8	Anthoine Hubert	ART Grand Prix	1'19.440	0.326
9	Niko Kari	Arden International	1'19.479	0.365
10	Nirei Fukuzumi	ART Grand Prix	1'19.484	0.370
11	Alessio Lorandi	Jenzer Motorsport	1'19.493	0.379
12	Arjun Maini	Jenzer Motorsport	1'19.530	0.416
13	Raoul Hyman	Campos Racing	1'19.561	0.447
14	Julien Falchero	Campos Racing	1'19.596	0.482
15	Kevin Jörg	Trident	1'19.680	0.566
16	Bruno Baptista	DAMS	1'19.778	0.664
17	Santino Ferrucci	DAMS	1'19.789	0.675
18	Marcos Siebert	Campos Racing	1'19.832	0.718
19	Tatiana Calderon	DAMS	1'19.872	0.758