MP Motorsport title challenger Hauger claimed the pole position at the Red Bull Ring ahead of Joshua Durksen and Gabriel Bortoleto.
There was an early brief incident when the cars went out of the pitlane, as Paul Aron made his way into the fast lane ahead of Taylor Barnard, the AIX Racing driver stopped in the middle of the fast lane and had to be wheeled back by the team’s crew
Gabriel Bortoleto was the one topping the standings first but was quickly surpassed by Championship leader Aron and contender Hadjar, who led the field after the first flying lap.
Victor Martins and Dennis Hauger completed the provisional top five, as brown Dams Racing cars went wide into the gravel during their first run of the session.
Villagomez and Aron, meanwhile, went under investigation by the FIA for an alleged unsafe release.
While the majority of the field went for another flying, provisional polesitter Hadjar had to pull back to the pitlane with a lot of smoke coming out from his Red Bull liveried Campos car, with an alleged engine issue. This meant the end of the session for the French driver.
Some drivers tried to complete a third flying lap with the first set of Supersofts, but no one managed to improve and went back into the pits for a new set of Pirelli tyres.
After the first run, Hadjar was provisionally first, although he wasn’t able to go out again due to his engine issue. Aron and Hauger completed the provisional top three.
Bortoleto, Martins, Miyata, Marti, Fittipaldi, Durksen, and Bearman rounded the first top ten of the session.
With fifteen minutes left on the clock, everyone was on the pitlane waiting for the right window to go out for the second run.
Meanwhile, Hadjar jumped off of his Campos car, confirming the issue wouldn’t allow him to go again despite being two-tenths in front of the rest of the grid at the end of the first run.
With less than eleven minutes to wave the chequered flag, all the drivers went out for their second run with a new set of Supersofts.
All the drivers were building a gap while completing some preparation laps before the last push.
Hauger was the first to find improvements, setting the provisional pole ahead of Gabriel Bortoleto and Franco Colapinto.
Joshua Durksen, nonetheless, went into an impressive provisional second place splitting Hauger and Bortoleto. Aron, despite setting a first purple sector, finished his lap in fifth.
During his second run, Aron spun after touching the gravel at Turn 6. Fortunately for him, he didn’t find the wall but that took out his pole chances.
Durksen improved during his second flying lap, cutting down the gap to pole position to just eight milliseconds. Hauger, on his end, wasn’t able to improve but kept the fastest time.
Despite not being able to improve, it was enough for Hauger to keep pole position as all the drivers saw the chequered flag unable to improve his 1:15.487.
Durksen finished in second with McLaren’s junior Gabriel Bortoleto completing the top three for the qualifying session.
Franco Colapinto ended up in fourth taking advantage of Aron’s mistake, who ended the session in fifth ahead of Taylor Barnard in sixth and Hadjar in seventh following his engine failure.
Campos teammate Pepe Marti finished in eight with Prema’s Ollie Bearman in ninth and Kush Maini rounding the top 10.
Maini gets the reverse pole for tomorrow, with Bearman alongside him on the first row and both Campos filling the second row.
Zane Maloney, who is currently third in the standings, had an uncharacteristic bad session, finishing only in 20th.
Discussion about this post