Mercedes Formula 1 protégé George Russell has taken pole position for the Belgian GP3 feature race at Spa-Francorchamps on a drying track.
The GP3 championship leader set a lap time of 2m27.042s to claim his third pole of the year.
This time was almost 21 seconds slower than Dorian Boccolacci’s 2m06.163s from practice as the track recovered from earlier rain.
Honda junior Nirei Fukuzumi ended the session 0.274s adrift of his ART team-mate to complete the front row.
Haas development driver Arjun Maini created his best qualifying performance of the year so far for third, ahead of Renault academy racer Jack Aitken.
Just three of ART’s four championship contenders begin the race in the top-half of the order as Anthoine Hubert finished 17th and almost three seconds behind Russell.
DAMS’ Matthieu Vaxiviere continued the team’s practice form for fifth on the grid, with Dorian Boccolacci sixth and Ryan Tveter seventh.
Arden’s Steijn Schothorst threatened the top-10 throughout the session and completed it in eighth, above Julien Falchero.
Sauber development driver Tatiana Calderon rounded out the top-10, 2.076s adrift of Russell’s time.
Ferrari academy prospect – and son of ex-F1 driver Jean – Giuliano Alesi was 12th, while Red Bull junior Niko Kari could only lap good enough for 16th.
Debutant Juan Manuel Correa was thrown in at the deep end in his first qualifying session considering the conditions and will start last.
He was the only driver to lap in the 2m30s bracket.
