Marcus Armstrong (PREMA Theodore Racing) has had a difficult first qualifying session at the Nurburgring round of the FIA Formula 3 European Championship. The Kiwi was stopped by an engine issue in practice and that limited his track time to only four laps.
He overcame the issue by ending up eighth in qualifying 1 but, unfortunately, as the team was forced to fit a new engine, he will be penalized 10 spots on the grid for race 1.
“It just hasn’t been our day,” commented Armstrong. “Unfortunately, an engine change in free practice means that we will have a grid penalty which is not ideal of course. I’m a little bit disappointed with how the day went. Considering that we only did a few laps in practice, in qualifying the first set of tires was good although the second set felt really different. We have some work to do tomorrow in race 1, then we will try to do our best and go for it in qualifying 2.”
Armstrong’s other team mates fared better. Russian racer Robert Shwartzman posted a superb late flying lap to take the pole, his second of the year. The Ferrari Driver Academy graduate prevailed on team-mate Mick Schumacher by only 47 thousands of a second. The German continued to show great form and confirmed himself as a top championship contender. He had already underlined the same status by taking the lead in the combined practice standings.
Championship points’ leader Daniel Ticktum (Motopark, 1m20.764s) following in third place. His compatriot Enaam Ahmed (Hitech Bullfrog GP, 1m20.890s) ended up fourth to complete the second row of the grid.
Estonian Ralf Aron was able to round out the top-5, showing good potential despite getting stuck in traffic.
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