Silverstone European F3: Callum Ilott beats Lando Norris to poles

Prema Powerteam Dallara-Mercedes driver Ilott left it relatively late to put in his hot laps, but his best was good enough to snatch pole for race two from the Carlin Dallara-Volkswagen of McLaren-Honda protege Norris by 0.025 seconds.

Ilott's second-fastest time, meanwhile, was a mere 0.009s quicker than the corresponding lap of Norris, meaning he also grabbed pole for Sunday's third race.

"I was stressing," confessed Ilott. "I didn't have the warm-up that I wanted because I needed to make some space and slow down.

"But the tyres didn't go off as quickly as yesterday, so I was able to keep it going a bit longer - they weren't the laps I wanted, but it was a bit of a scramble."

Race-one poleman Norris said: "Second is very good position-wise, but there was a lot more potential with the car.

"Yesterday I felt I did a good job; today I think it was fairly poor - if I maximised it I could have gone a good chunk faster than I did."

Joel Eriksson continued to star on his first visit to Silverstone, the BMW junior taking third on the grid for both races, with his best in his Motopark car being just 0.055s off Ilott.

"Hopefully a good start for the race, and I will give the British guys a good challenge I would say," said the Swede.

Maximilian Gunther was also within a tenth of Prema team-mate Ilott, and will start both races from fourth position.

Jake Hughes made a substantial step forward from Thursday qualifying, stamping in the fifth quickest time on the final lap in his Hitech Grand Prix machine.

That demoted Carlin's Jehan Daruvala to sixth, although the Mumbai F3 rookie's second best reversed the order with Hughes for race three.

Carlin cameo racer Jake Dennis was another to make a late improvement to take seventh from Prema's Ferrari junior Guan Yu Zhou, although on second-best times it's the Chinese driver in front.

Similarly, Prema's Mick Schumacher and Hitech's Honda protege Tadasuke Makino traded fifth-row positions, with Schumacher ninth for race two and Makino getting the spot for race three.

RACE TWO QUALIFYING:

RACE THREE QUALIFYING