[caption id="attachment_8745" align="alignleft" width="1200"] Jehan Daruvala after qualifying P3 on Friday at Silverstone. Photos: Twitter @DaruvalaJehan[/caption]

Silverstone, 12 July 2019: Indian race driver Jehan Daruvala missed the pole by a whisker after a late charge by Jüri Vips in his last lap put the Hitech Grand Prix team on top and he fetched his first F3 pole position, during an intense final few minutes of FIA Formula 3 Qualifying here on Friday.

No fewer than five drivers held first in the final 90 seconds of the session, but Vips came out on top ahead of PREMA duo Marcus Armstrong and Jehan Daruvala.

The Championship leaders were the ones to beat at the start of the session, with Armstrong and Daruvala comfortably lapping quickest early on. Vips and Max Fewtrell soon got up to speed and were able to usurp the in-form pair.

Armstrong was on the hunt for his second pole this season in as many rounds and reclaimed P1 as the cars began to feed back into the pit lane at the halfway stage.  Liam Lawson nipped out ahead of everyone and pocketed P2 with the track to himself, but the Kiwi was pushed back down the order when the track filled up again.

Vips exchanged fastest laps with Niko Kari heading into the final minutes of the session, before Qualifying quickly heated up. Pedro Piquet stole P1 from the clutches of Vips with 90 seconds left on the clock, but was soon usurped by Robert Shwartzman and then Armstrong.

The Estonian had enough in the tank to return the favour and jumped back ahead to seal first, followed by Armstrong and Daruvala. Christian Lundgaard and Leonardo Pulcini completed the top five, ahead of Shwartzman, Lawson, Piquet, Fabio Scherer and Ye Yifei.

Jehan will be aiming for a podium finish if not a win and looking forward for a good fight in Race 1 tomorrow, at 2.05iST. Local time: 9.25am

FIA Formula 3 Championship – Round 4 Qualifying classification

DRIVER

TEAM

LAPTIME

LAPS

1

Jüri Vips

Hitech Grand Prix

1:43.902

13

2

Marcus Armstrong

PREMA Racing

1:43.998

11

3

Jehan Daruvala

PREMA Racing

1:44.014

11

4

Christian Lundgaard

ART Grand Prix

1:44.073

12

5

Leonardo Pulcini

Hitech Grand Prix

1:44.139

12

6

Robert Shwartzman

PREMA Racing

1:44.218

11

7

Liam Lawson

MP Motorsport

1:44.360

12

8

Pedro Piquet

Trident

1:44.403

13

9

Fabio Scherer

Sauber Junior Team by Charouz

1:44.433

13

10

Ye Yifei

Hitech Grand Prix

1:44.461

12

11

Jake Hughes

HWA RACELAB

1:44.462

13

12

Niko Kari

Trident

1:44.476

14

13

David Beckmann

ART Grand Prix

1:44.581

12

14

Max Fewtrell

ART Grand Prix

1:44.584

12

15

Raoul Hyman

Sauber Junior Team by Charouz

1:44.647

12

16

Logan Sargeant

Carlin Buzz Racing

1:44.746

12

17

Lirim Zendeli

Sauber Junior Team by Charouz

1:44.756

13

18

Richard Verschoor

MP Motorsport

1:44.967

11

19

Sebastian Fernandez

Campos Racing

1:44.984

13

20

Felipe Drugovich

Carlin Buzz Racing

1:45.020

12

21

Alex Peroni

Campos Racing

1:45.088

13

22

Devlin DeFrancesco

Trident

1:45.109

13

23

Keyvan Andres

HWA RACELAB

1:45.110

13

24

Simo Laaksonen

MP Motorsport

1:45.142

12

25

Bent Viscaal

HWA RACELAB

1:45.229

14

26

Yuki Tsunoda

Jenzer Motorsport

1:45.301

13

27

Andreas Estner

Jenzer Motorsport

1:45.435

13

28

Teppei Natori

Carlin Buzz Racing

1:45.590

13

29

Federico Malvestiti

Jenzer Motorsport

1:46.103

13

30

Alessio Deledda

Campos Racing

1:47.068

13