Share this article on LinkedIn Email

Formula 3 European Championship rookie Fabio Scherer took his first series pole position at Silverstone by topping the second qualifying session.

The Swiss, who had never driven the track until free practice, defeated Mick Schumacher to go fastest by 0.049 seconds in his Motopark Dallara-Volkswagen and claim pole for race two.



This is the maiden pole in the car-racing career of Scherer, who graduated from the German Formula 4 Championship for this season, and who felt he should have taken his first F3 win last time out at Spa had he not been spun out on the first lap before a startling recovery drive.

"It's the first pole of my life - I've won a few races, but never from pole," said Scherer.

"The team made the right decision [using two full sets of new tyres], and we have really progressed through the whole day.

"I made a lot of mistakes in free practice, and to get from 1.5s off to pole in one day is normally not possible, so it shows what a great job the team has done."

Scherer made a mistake on his second push lap by running off the road at The Loop, meaning that Motopark team-mate Juri Vips - who was third fastest overall - wrested pole for Sunday's race, which Scherer will start from way down in 13th as second-fastest times decide the grid.

Vips could have done even better, only to get too close to Keyvan Andres on his final lap of the session, delaying his progress.

"We've made a huge step from Q1 in myself and the car," said Vips, whose only pre-weekend experience of Silverstone amounted to half a day in a BRDC British F3 car.

"I think there was more to come and I could have got pole [for race two] - well, maybe not quite, but for sure I could have got Mick, because he was only 0.001s in front."

Enaam Ahmed made a step forward from Q1 to take fourth fastest in his Hitech GP car, with his second-best time putting him sixth for the final race.

The third of the quick Motopark rookies, Jonathan Aberdein, was fifth fastest, and his second-best time puts him on the front row of the grid alongside team-mate Vips for Sunday, 0.113s adrift of the pole.

First-race polesitter Sacha Fenestraz will start that race from third in his Carlin car, sharing the second row with Prema Powerteam ace Schumacher, while his overall best puts him sixth for race two.

Sharing the fourth row for race two are the top two in the championship: Prema's points leader Marcus Armstrong and Motopark's Dan Ticktum.

This duo seemed to trip each other up when their tyres were at their best, and their second-best times put them fifth (Armstrong) and seventh (Ticktum) for race three.

Armstrong's fellow Prema-run Ferrari juniors Guan Yu Zhou and Robert Shwartzman rounded out the overall top 10, this duo moving up to eighth and ninth respectively for the third race, with Hitech's Alex Palou taking the final top-10 spot for race three.

Title contender Ralf Aron's grim day continued, the Prema man ending up 13th and 12th.

Race two qualifying

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap 1 Fabio Scherer Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m50.460s - 2 Mick Schumacher PREMA Theodore Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m50.509s 0.049s 3 Juri Vips Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m50.510s 0.050s 4 Enaam Ahmed Hitech Bullfrog GP Dallara/Mercedes 1m50.537s 0.077s 5 Jonathan Aberdein Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m50.568s 0.108s 6 Sacha Fenestraz Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m50.623s 0.163s 7 Marcus Armstrong PREMA Theodore Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m50.663s 0.203s 8 Dan Ticktum Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m50.684s 0.224s 9 Guanyu Zhou PREMA Theodore Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m50.708s 0.248s 10 Robert Shwartzman PREMA Theodore Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m50.752s 0.292s 11 Alex Palou Hitech Bullfrog GP Dallara/Mercedes 1m50.798s 0.338s 12 Ben Hingeley Hitech Bullfrog GP Dallara/Mercedes 1m50.820s 0.360s 13 Ralf Aron PREMA Theodore Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m50.830s 0.370s 14 Sebastian Fernandez Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m50.971s 0.511s 15 Marino Sato Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m51.009s 0.549s 16 Ferdinand Habsburg Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m51.124s 0.664s 17 Nikita Troitskiy Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m51.136s 0.676s 18 Jehan Daruvala Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m51.159s 0.699s 19 Artem Petrov Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m51.224s 0.764s 20 Charles Leong Hitech Bullfrog GP Dallara/Mercedes 1m51.402s 0.942s 21 Sophia Florsch Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m51.665s 1.205s 22 Keyvan Andres Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m51.719s 1.259s 23 Ameya Vaidyanathan Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m51.804s 1.344s 24 Petru Florescu Fortec Motorsports Dallara/Mercedes 1m52.650s 2.190s

Race three qualifying



Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap 1 Juri Vips Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m50.543s - 2 Jonathan Aberdein Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m50.656s 0.113s 3 Sacha Fenestraz Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m50.671s 0.128s 4 Mick Schumacher PREMA Theodore Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m50.686s 0.143s 5 Marcus Armstrong PREMA Theodore Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m50.733s 0.190s 6 Enaam Ahmed Hitech Bullfrog GP Dallara/Mercedes 1m50.736s 0.193s 7 Dan Ticktum Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m50.757s 0.214s 8 Guanyu Zhou PREMA Theodore Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m50.805s 0.262s 9 Robert Shwartzman PREMA Theodore Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m50.806s 0.263s 10 Alex Palou Hitech Bullfrog GP Dallara/Mercedes 1m50.858s 0.315s 11 Ben Hingeley Hitech Bullfrog GP Dallara/Mercedes 1m50.881s 0.338s 12 Ralf Aron PREMA Theodore Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m50.934s 0.391s 13 Fabio Scherer Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m50.947s 0.404s 14 Marino Sato Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m51.105s 0.562s 15 Jehan Daruvala Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m51.214s 0.671s 16 Sebastian Fernandez Motopark Dallara/Volkswagen 1m51.218s 0.675s 17 Ferdinand Habsburg Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m51.220s 0.677s 18 Nikita Troitskiy Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m51.291s 0.748s 19 Artem Petrov Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m51.400s 0.857s 20 Sophia Florsch Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m51.773s 1.230s 21 Ameya Vaidyanathan Carlin Dallara/Volkswagen 1m51.830s 1.287s 22 Keyvan Andres Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara/Mercedes 1m51.857s 1.314s 23 Charles Leong Hitech Bullfrog GP Dallara/Mercedes 1m52.009s 1.466s 24 Petru Florescu Fortec Motorsports Dallara/Mercedes 1m53.080s 2.537s



