Leclerc edges Albon for first Norisring pole

The two series rookies were split by just nine thousandths of a second in the latter of the two qualifying groups at the German street venue, which was comfortably the quicker of the pair.

Antonio Giovinazzi was first to break through the benchmark set in the earlier session by Maximilian Gunther, a 48.533s, but was soon displaced by a rapid Leclerc at the top of the timesheets.

Albon then managed to better the championship leader’s time by 0.016s, sparking a battle for the top of the timesheets that was ultimately won by Leclerc with a best time of 48.240s.

The quirks of the qualifying system mean however that Albon will start Saturday morning’s first race from third behind Gunther, with the second quickest man of the slower session, Markus Pommer in fourth with a time just 0.010s shy of his compatriot Gunther.

Felix Rosenqvist was the third quickest of the second group, 0.095s away from Leclerc’s best effort, and will start from fifth, ahead of Albon’s Signature teammate Dorian Boccolacci, who was 0.070s slower than Gunther.

Giovinazzi, Alessio Lorandi, Mikkel Jensen and double Spa winner Jake Dennis complete the top 10. Ferrari protege Lance Stroll, back in action after his one-race ban, starts 11th.

Group B (odd numbers):

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	Charles Leclerc	Van Amersfoort Racing	48.240
2	Alexander Albon	Signature	48.249	0.009
3	Felix Rosenqvist	Prema Powerteam	48.335	0.095
4	Antonio Giovinazzi	Carlin	48.439	0.199
5	Mikkel Jensen	Mucke Motorsport	48.443	0.203
6	Lance Stroll	Prema Powerteam	48.491	0.251
7	Arjun Maini	Van Amersfoort Racing	48.563	0.323
8	Santino Ferrucci	Mucke Motorsport	48.600	0.360
9	Fabian Schiller	West-Tec	48.683	0.443
10	Sergio Sette Camara	Motopark	48.719	0.479
11	Tatiana Calderon	Carlin	48.746	0.506
12	Julio Moreno	T-Sport	48.759	0.519
13	Matt Solomon	Double R Racing	48.763	0.523
14	Kang Ling	Mucke Motorsport	48.870	0.630
15	Matt Rao	Fortec	49.071	0.831
16	Mahaveer Raghunathan	Motopark	49.289	1.049

Group A (even numbers):

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1	Maximilian Gunther	Mucke Motorsport	48.533
2	Markus Pommer	Motopark	48.543	0.010
3	Dorian Boccolacci	Signature	48.603	0.070
4	Alessio Lorandi	Van Amersfoort Racing	48.637	0.104
5	Jake Dennis	Prema Powerteam	48.658	0.125
6	Gustavo Menezes	Carlin	48.684	0.151
7	George Russell	Carlin	48.690	0.157
8	Callum Ilott	Carlin	48.750	0.217
9	Michele Beretta	Mucke Motorsport	48.812	0.279
10	Ryan Tveter	Carlin	48.846	0.313
11	Sam MacLeod	Motopark	48.952	0.419
12	Nabil Jeffri	Motopark	48.955	0.422
13	Brandon Maïsano	Prema Powerteam	49.103	0.570
14	Raoul Hyman	West-Tec	49.105	0.572
15	Pietro Fittipaldi	Fortec	49.242	0.709
16	Nicolas Pohler	Double R Racing	49.349	0.816