Qualifying: Armstrong takes his first 2019 pole

Marcus Armstrong has taken pole position for the Formula 3 Sprint Race at the Red Bull Ring, his first of the season.

The Prema driver edged out Max Fewtrell for the top spot on the front row, who jumped to the second spot in the latter stages, which pushed Juri Vips down into third.

Jehan Daruvala, who has won two of the four races this year, could only manage fourth but it was worse for the third Prema driver and championship leader Robert Shwartzman, who qualified 12th.

The Russian pulled off the circuit with an issue with 18 minutes to go, which allowed his rivals to set faster times on an improving track.

The session was hit by a red flag as Logan Sargeant made contact the barrier at the final corner as he attempted to gain on his personal best time.

With four minutes remaining, all the cars returned to the circuit, with Christian Lundgaard and Jake Hughes taking fifth and sixth respectively. Leonardo Pulcini was seventh for Hitech.

Behind the Italian was Pedro Piquet, David Beckmann and Sebastian Fernandez, who rounded out the top ten.

The Feature Race starts at 10:25 local time on Saturday morning, with Daruvala looking to gain control of the championship following the poor session from his championship-leading teammate.