European F3 Red Bull Ring: Schumacher secures another double pole

Schumacher, who took the points lead with victory in Saturday's race in Austria, set three laps quicker than anyone else's best in second qualifying.

But the opposition, which again came from his Prema Powerteam stablemates, was closer this time, with Ferrari proteges Marcus Armstrong and Robert Shwartzman each taking a front-row starting slot for Sunday - Armstrong's best lap was just 0.087 seconds adrift of Schumacher's.

Schumacher had already stamped in a 1m23.230s, possibly benefiting from some tow from Artem Petrov, but he then cleared the Russian and produced his standard-setting 1m23.170s on his own, the car squirming on the exit of Turn 10 as he approached the finish line.

He then also put in a 1m23.225s, despite having to overtake Julian Hanses.

Armstrong set his best time while chasing Prema team-mate Guan Yu Zhou, but got possibly too close to the Chinese afterwards, with his second-best lap good only for fifth on the grid for race three.

Shwartzman was third overall, but moves up to another front-row start for the finale.

A flurry of last-lap improvements was topped by Juri Vips, who moved forward to put his Motopark car fourth on the grid for both races.

Team-mate Jonathan Aberdein was fifth overall, but his second-best time leapfrogs him ahead of Vips to third for race three.

Carlin duo Jehan Daruvala and Sacha Fenestraz also set their best times on the final lap for sixth and seventh, but are eighth and 11th respectively for the finale.

Pre-weekend series leader Dan Ticktum was the big loser at the end, the Motopark-run Red Bull Junior dropping to eighth, while he will start seventh for race three.

Ralf Aron will line his Prema car up ninth for race two, and sixth for the finale, while Nikita Troitskiy (Carlin) and Zhou took a 10th place apiece.

Local hero Ferdinand Habsburg was 13th for Carlin, but his second-best time puts him ninth for race three.

Race two qualifying

Race three qualifying