QUALIFYING: Hauger holds off Duerksen to seal Pole Position in Spielberg

MP Motorsport’s Dennis Hauger sealed his second Pole Position of the season after close battle with AIX Racing’s Joshua Duerksen in a dramatic Spielberg Qualifying.

The Norwegian driver completed a lap of 1:15.487 to lead Duerksen by just 0.008s, as Invicta Racing’s Gabriel Bortoleto rounded out the top three, a tenth away from the Norwegian’s Pole time.

It was Campos Racing’s Isack Hadjar that led the way in the early stages though, an opening time of 1:15.828 put him over two-tenths clear of Hitech Pulse-Eight’s Paul Aron in second.

While most went for cool down laps, others continued to push but no one could trouble the top two, with Hauger going closest in his MP car in third place.

Returning to the pitlane, Hadjar had smoke coming from the rear of his car, with the issue ruling him out for the remainder of the session.

The rest of the field followed him into the pitlane to bolt on a second set of the Pirelli Supersoft tyres in preparation for their final runs.

With five minutes left, the final few laps started and after leading the rest of the field around the track, Hauger went to the top of the timesheets with a 1:15.487, leading Duerksen by 0.111s as he moved himself up to second.

The Paraguayan improved further on his next flying lap to go within 0.008s of top spot, but in the end Hauger held on to Pole Position, with Bortoleto in third.

Franco Colapinto completed a strong day for MP as he qualified fourth ahead of Aron, who survived a spin on his final flying effort to finish fifth. Taylor Barnard wound up sixth for AIX ahead of the Campos pair of Hadjar and Josep María Martí.

Oliver Bearman was ninth for PREMA Racing ahead of Kush Maini, with the Invicta Racing driver set to start from reverse grid pole in the Sprint Race for the second weekend in a row.

Join us tomorrow for the Spielberg Sprint Race which is set to start at 13:30 local time.