Red Bull junior Vips scores Macau F3 pole

Red Bull junior driver Juri Vips scorched to pole position in Formula 3 qualifying for the Macau Grand Prix on Friday afternoon, setting a new track record to beat rival Robert Shwartzman by three-tenths of a second.

Driving for Hitech Grand Prix, Vips set a fastest time of 2m04.997s in the final 10 minutes of Q2 to secure pole for Saturday's qualifying race at the Guia Circuit as times continued to tumble following Thursday's opening session.

Prema Racing's Marcus Armstrong had sat on provisional pole following the initial runs in Q2, only to crash out and spark a red flag, bringing his session to an end with 19 minutes still on the clock.

Armstrong was shuffled down to ninth by the time a third and final red flag of the session brought the session to an end with two minutes left on the clock, confirming Vips on pole.

FIA Formula 3 champion Shwartzman finished 0.379s down in second place for Prema ahead of Macau returnee and Formula 2 driver Callum Ilott, who took third for Sauber Junior Team by Charouz.

Renault youngster Christian Lundgaard took fourth ahead of Richard Verschoor, while Thursday's provisional pole sitter, Jake Hughes, could only finish the day sixth for HWA Racelab.

Formula Regional European champion Frederik Vesti will start seventh ahead of Arjun Maini, who took P8 overall in just his second day driving the 2019-spec F3 car. Logan Sargeant completed the top 10 behind Armstrong.

Two-time Macau winner Dan Ticktum will start Saturday's qualifying race from the middle of the grid after a crash in FP2 ruled him out of a chunk of qualifying as Carlin rebuilt his car. The Briton got out in time to finish 13th.