Carlin’s Alex Lynn has maintained his record of starting GP3 races on the front row, following another competitive qualifying session in Hockenheim this morning. The Red Bull Junior was on provisional pole until the dying moment of the session when he was deposed by Marvin Kirchhofer. Lynn’s Carlin team mate Emil Bernstorff also completed a strong session and will start tomorrow’s race from fourth place. Luis Sa Silva was left disappointed with his 20th place grid slot, after lying in or near the top ten for the majority of the session.

Despite the early start to the day, conditions were already warm when the GP3 drivers took to the track this morning for qualifying. Bernstorff made a promising start to his session, the Anglo Danish driver went second quickest with just five minutes gone, Lynn meanwhile was fifth. Just five minutes later and it was Sa Silva who was improving, the Angolan was up to fourth place with 10 minutes of the session gone.

Just before pitting for new rubber Bernstorff was on a quick lap, but his best first and second sectors so far came to nothing, when the Carlin man came across yellow flags and had to back off – leaving him 12th on the timing screens. 

Lynn, who had steadily been climbing the timing screens went quickest of all with 14 minutes to go, just before heading into the pits for new tyres. With the majority of the field in the pit lane, the track was quiet, with Lynn P1, Bernstorff fifth and Sa Silva 12th. 

Emerging back on track on new Pirellis the GP3 driver started their second attack on the provisional pole time. Lynn moved the bar even higher, improving his time following a purple and green first and second sector. Bernstorff was also improving as a flurry of quicker times were posted, the GP3 rookie went fourth quickest with only a couple of minutes remaining.

Lynn meanwhile looked to take his third pole position of the season, until a late improving Marvin Kirchhoffer snatched pole with just seconds remaining. On his final lap and with traffic, Lynn had no chance to respond and will consequently line up second, continuing his record of front row starts this season. Bernstorff meanwhile matched his best ever GP3 qualifying performance with fourth quickest, while Sa Silva was disappointed with 20th, after being caught out by yellow flags and traffic after such promise earlier in the session.

Second placed man Lynn said, “It was a good session, we had really good pace on the first set of tyres and maybe didn’t make such a big jump on the second set as other people did. Taking another front row start is really positive and there is a good chance with the car we have of taking some big championship points. It’s very hot here this weekend and we’re seeing the tyres degrade more than you’d normally expect at this circuit. So I think that could be an additional factor this afternoon.” 

Team mate Bernstorff added, “I took my equal best qualifying spot of the year so that’s positive, and anything can happen in the races, especially at the start so I will be looking to capitalise on that.   We kept the car the same when I came in for new tyres half way through, but I did look at some data which showed I was braking a little early in a few places. That really helped me on my second run and I improved my time quite a bit.” 

The first GP3 race of the weekend will take place later today.