ART Grand Prix’s Ferrari Formula 1 academy driver Callum Ilott has taken pole position for the GP3 Austrian feature race after dominating qualifying at the Red Bull Ring.
Ilott set the fastest time on multiple occasions and posted a 1m19.209s with four of 30 minutes remaining to deny team-mate Jake Hughes his first pole for the French outfit.
It is Ilott’s first pole in the series after sprint race victory at Paul Ricard, while it marks the fourth straight season in which ART has taken the fastest time in the opening three events of a campaign.
Ilott is now 23 points behind in the drivers’ standings and could close this margin further as leader Anthoine Hubert suffered two issues in the final five minutes, resulting in qualifying 19th.
Hubert first went wide at the right-handed final Turn 10 corner, going across the grass and ending his attempt to go quicker, with the front of his Dallara machine jumping across a kerb.
His ART-Dallara then came to a halt on track, bringing out the red flags with one minute and 50 seconds remaining.
The session was not restarted.
Trident’s Alessio Lorandi claimed a career-best third place above Leonardo Pulcini and Hubert’s current main championship challenger Nikita Mazepin.
Pedro Piquet is set to start from the third row for the first time, with Dorian Boccolacci seventh and Ryan Tveter eighth.
Gabriel Aubry was the fastest Arden competitor in ninth, with Ferrari-backed Giuliano Alesi tenth.
Joey Mawson was consistently in the top 10 early in the session but fell to 13th at the end after not improving sufficiently on his second series of laps.
Sauber test driver Tatiana Calderon rose from 20th to 17th in the second half of the session.
Debutant Devlin DeFrancesco is set to start 20th in his first GP3 feature after ending almost two tenths adrift of Hubert’s time.
