Schwartzman beats Lungaard to pole

Robert Schwartzman took the first pole position of the new FIA Formula 3 championship, denying Christian Lundgaard the honours in the final moments.

The Russian's fastest time read a 1:31.975, which was over one-tenth of a second ahead of Lundgaard, who looked set for the top spot after his run.

Schwartzman's teammate Marcus Armstrong was third, beating Jehan Daruvala to lead the second row.

Logan Sargeant was fifth for Carlin, finishing just ahead of Simo Laaksonen. David Beckmann was seventh for ART, narrowly leading teammate Max Fewtrell.

Alex Peroni was ninth while Yuki Tsunoda rounded out the top ten has the fastest Jenzer car.

One car failed to take part in the session as Alessio Deledda retired early on when his Campos came to a halt at Turn 1.

The pack outside the top ten to the lower regions of the late teen positions was extremely close, as there were just two-tenths of a second separating Juri Vips in 11th and Liam Lawson in 19th.

The first race of the F3 season kicks off on Saturday morning at 10:15 local time.