Qualifying: Hughes snatches pole from Daruvala

HWA's Jake Hughes took pole position for Saturday's Formula 3 feature race in France with a supreme lap of the Paul Ricard circuit to edge early pace-setter Jehan Daruvala.

The Indian driver set the session's early pace with a 1:50.724 lap to hold the early advantage; before stretching the pace to 1:50.576 at the sessions halfway point. 

However, just as the session reached its climax Daruvala was bettered by Hughes, with the Brit setting a time of 1:49.519, to edge the Prema driver by 0.087s.

Championship leader Robert Schwartzman completed the top three; albeit over a quarter of a second away from adding to his Pole from Barcelona. 

Meanwhile, Trident's Pedro Piquet upstaged his practice-leading teammate Niko Kari to complete the second row. With the Finn a disappointing ninth.

Marcus Armstrong and Leo Pulcini made up row three, with the Italian making up for his Barcelona tribulations.

Red Bull academy prospect Juri Vips qualified a strong seventh. The Hitech mana performance upstaged fellow Res Bull junior Liam Lawson's, who could only qualify 15th.

Dutchman Bent Viscaal qualified a season-best eighth for HWA, supporting the form of his pole-sitting teammate. While Alex Peroni rounded out the top ten for Campos.

However, it was a poor day for ART, with all three of their drivers missing out on a top ten start. Christian Lundgaard led the French squad's challenge in a reserved 12th, with fellow Renault-academy prospect down in 14th.