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Norisring European F3: Max Verstappen claims double pole

Max Verstappen will start both of Sunday's Formula 3 European Championship races at the Norisring from pole position

The Dutch racer headed championship leader Esteban Ocon by 0.088 seconds just after the midway point of Saturday afternoon's qualifying session when it started to rain, and everyone returned to the pits.

Although he has won five races, these are only the third and fourth poles for Verstappen's Van Amersfoort Racing Dallara-Volkswagen - and one of those he did not take up after mechanical problems struck at Hockenheim.

On second-fastest times, Ocon's Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes slips to fourth on the grid for race three, allowing Tom Blomqvist to move onto the front row for the weekend's finale in his Carlin-run Dallara-VW.

Blomqvist is third on the grid for race three, while Felix Rosenqvist's Mucke Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes is fourth and third for the two races.

American Santino Ferrucci, who is in only his second European F3 weekend, was the surprise turn of this session to join Verstappen in making it two 16-year-olds in the top five with his EuroInternational Dallara-Mercedes.

Ferrucci shares the third row for both races with Carlin runner Jordan King, who had a welcome upturn in form to shade Ferrucci for fifth on the grid for race three.

Lucas Auer, a podium finisher earlier on Saturday, was seventh fastest in his Mucke machine from Carlin twins Antonio Giovinazzi and Jake Dennis, with the Prema car of Nicholas Latifi rounding out the top 10.

For the third race, Giovinazzi moves up to seventh ahead of Dennis, Antonio Fuoco and Auer.

Jules Szymkowiak, who qualified 14th, will start race two from 19th - he earned a five-place grid penalty for an incident with Michele Beretta in the morning race.

Most of the runners got out on wet-weather tyres towards the end of the session. With rain looking likely for Sunday's two races, Verstappen's five flying laps were all faster than the best anyone else managed - he was 1.4s faster than King, with Ocon the third best.

Race two qualifying:

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                        Time     Gap
 1.  Max Verstappen       Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW       48.118s
 2.  Esteban Ocon         Prema Dallara-Merc              48.206s  +0.088s
 3.  Tom Blomqvist        Carlin Dallara-VW               48.240s  +0.122s
 4.  Felix Rosenqvist     Mucke Dallara-Merc              48.310s  +0.192s
 5.  Santino Ferrucci     Eurointernational Dallara-Merc  48.444s  +0.326s
 6.  Jordan King          Carlin Dallara-VW               48.447s  +0.329s
 7.  Lucas Auer           Mucke Dallara-Merc              48.461s  +0.343s
 8.  Antonio Giovinazzi   Carlin Dallara-VW               48.586s  +0.468s
 9.  Jake Dennis          Carlin Dallara-VW               48.597s  +0.479s
10.  Nicholas Latifi      Prema Dallara-Merc              48.625s  +0.507s
11.  Antonio Fuoco        Prema Dallara-Merc              48.660s  +0.542s
12.  Sean Gelael          Carlin Dallara-VW               48.753s  +0.635s
13.  Gustavo Menezes      Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW       48.765s  +0.647s
14.  Jules Szymkowiak     Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW       48.821s  +0.703s
15.  Felix Serralles      West-Tec Dallara-Merc           48.830s  +0.712s
16.  Roy Nissany          Mucke Dallara-Merc              48.857s  +0.739s
17.  Spike Goddard        T-Sport Dallara-NBE             48.987s  +0.869s
18.  Tatiana Calderon     Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc          49.063s  +0.945s
19.  Michele Beretta      EuroInternational Dallara-Merc  49.155s  +1.037s
20.  Alexander Toril      T-Sport Dallara-NBE             49.177s  +1.059s
21.  Dennis van de Laar   Prema Dallara-Merc              49.190s  +1.072s
22.  Felipe Guimaraes     Double R Dallara-Merc           49.191s  +1.073s
23.  John Bryant-Meisner  Fortec Dallara-Merc             49.322s  +1.204s
24.  Hector Hurst         West-Tec Dallara-Merc           49.430s  +1.312s
25.  Sandro Zeller        Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc          50.154s  +2.036s
26.  Mitchell Gilbert     Fortec Dallara-Merc             50.838s  +2.720s

Race three qualifying:

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                        Time     Gap
 1.  Max Verstappen       Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW       48.255s
 2.  Tom Blomqvist        Carlin Dallara-VW               48.299s  +0.044s
 3.  Felix Rosenqvist     Mucke Dallara-Merc              48.383s  +0.128s
 4.  Esteban Ocon         Prema Dallara-Merc              48.384s  +0.129s
 5.  Jordan King          Carlin Dallara-VW               48.520s  +0.265s
 6.  Santino Ferrucci     EuroInternational Dallara-Merc  48.553s  +0.298s
 7.  Antonio Giovinazzi   Carlin Dallara-VW               48.594s  +0.339s
 8.  Jake Dennis          Carlin Dallara-VW               48.647s  +0.392s
 9.  Antonio Fuoco        Prema Dallara-Merc              48.665s  +0.410s
10.  Lucas Auer           Mucke Dallara-Merc              48.672s  +0.417s
11.  Nicholas Latifi      Prema Dallara-Merc              48.764s  +0.509s
12.  Sean Gelael          Carlin Dallara-VW               48.779s  +0.524s
13.  Felix Serralles      West-Tec Dallara-Merc           48.887s  +0.632s
14.  Roy Nissany          Mucke Dallara-Merc              48.912s  +0.657s
15.  Jules Szymkowiak     Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW       48.971s  +0.716s
16.  Michele Beretta      EuroInternational Dallara-Merc  49.186s  +0.931s
17.  Gustavo Menezes      Van Amersfoort Dallara-VW       49.192s  +0.937s
18.  Spike Goddard        T-Sport Dallara-NBE             49.225s  +0.970s
19.  Dennis van der Laar  Prema Dallara-Merc              49.254s  +0.999s
20.  Alexander Toril      T-Sport Dallara-NBE             49.265s  +1.010s
21.  Felipe Guimaraes     Double R Dallara-Merc           49.266s  +1.011s
22.  John Bryant-Meisner  Fortec Dallara-Merc             49.334s  +1.079s
23.  Tatiana Calderón     Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc          49.356s  +1.101s
24.  Hector Hurst         West-Tec Dallara-Merc           49.559s  +1.304s
25.  Sandro Zeller        Jo Zeller Dallara-Merc          50.184s  +1.929s
26.  Mitchell Gilbert     Fortec Dallara-Merc             50.958s  +2.703s

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