Felix to start opening Spielberg race from eighth

Felix will start the opening FIA Formula 3 European Championship race of the weekend at the Red Bull Ring from eighth on the grid.

After a challenging free practice session earlier in the day, qualifying at the Austrian venue failed to deliver a significant up-turn in form, with Felix eventually ending up 0.617s off the ultimate pace in ninth on the timesheets.

Local favourite Lucas Auer led the Mücke Motorsport charge this time around, although his 1m25.454s best was only a tiny 0.02 seconds faster than what Felix could manage as the duo occupied eighth and ninth on the timesheets.

With Auer picking up a five-place grid penalty following his Race 3 clash with Jordan King last time out in Moscow, however, Felix is promoted one place and will start from P8 in tomorrow’s Race 1.

Pole position went to championship leader Esteban Ocon, with Prema Powerteam and Carlin runners locking out five of the top six positions.

Race 1 is scheduled to get underway at 11.10 local time on Saturday.

FELIX:

“Not what we were hoping for of course, but we did see the signs for this in practice and feared it would be difficult to challenge for the top five. I made a pretty good lap and I’m actually a little surprised that it didn’t yield more in terms of the end result. Both Lucas and I ended up on very similar lap times, so we just have to accept that this is our level at the moment. It will be tough to make much progress tomorrow, but I’ll obviously give it everything I’ve got and the Red Bull Ring normally produces good racing. All we can do is shake this off, keep on working, and there is still a lot of racing to come this weekend.”

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