Pau F3: Russell, Lorandi take poles in second qualifying

George Russell and Alessio Lorandi will start Races 2 and 3 at Pau from pole position, both set to do so for the first time in their respective European F3 tenures.

Just like in the first qualifying session, Russell topped his group, his effort quick enough to beat the earlier session's benchmark of Callum Ilott.

The Hitech driver grabbed the lead in the last possible second from Sergio Sette Camara, the Brazilian himself surpassing Lorandi only after the chequered flag.

Ilott, pace-setter in Group B, will complete an all-British front row, beating Race 1 pole-sitter Lance Stroll by two tenths.

The Williams-protege will start fourth as a result, ahead of teammate Nick Cassidy, who shares the third row with Lorandi.

Ralf Aron put a third Prema car into the top seven, while the Italian squad's final driver, championship leader Maximilian Gunther, will only start 19th after crashing out early on.

Mucke's Mikkel Jensen, Hungaroring race winner Ben Barnicoat and Anthoine Hubert will complete the top 10.

The grid of the weekend's final race, determined by the second-best times, will see Lorandi on pole alongside Stroll.

Sette Camara will once again be third, ahead of Cassidy, Race 2's front row Russell and Ilott, Barnicoat, Jensen, Ryan Tveter and Hubert.

Qualifying times

Pos.	Driver	Team	Group A	Group B
1	George Russell	HitechGP	1:21.281
2	Callum Ilott	Van Amersfoort Racing		1:21.708
3	Sérgio Sette Câmara	Motopark	1:21.371
4	Lance Stroll	Prema Powerteam		1:21.968
5	Alessio Lorandi	Carlin	1:21.530
6	Nick Cassidy	Prema Powerteam		1:22.200
7	Ralf Aron	Prema Powerteam	1:21.638
8	Mikkel Jensen	kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport		1:22.370
9	Ben Barnicoat	HitechGP	1:21.667
10	Anthoine Hubert	Van Amersfoort Racing		1:22.513
11	Ryan Tveter	Carlin	1:21.869
12	David Beckmann	kfzteile24 Mücke Motorsport		1:23.050
13	Joel Eriksson	Motopark	1:21.920
14	Niko Kari	Motopark		1:23.474
15	Nikita Mazepin	HitechGP	1:22.283
16	Pedro Piquet	Van Amersfoort Racing		1:24.050
17	Harrison Newey	Van Amersfoort Racing	1:22.933
18	Arjun Maini	ThreeBond with T-Sport		1:25.877
19	Maximilian Günther	Prema Powerteam	1:22.938
20	Guanyu Zhou	Motopark		No Time
21	Zhi Cong Li	Carlin	1:23.658