Hauger secured a crucial first place position to maintain his chances in the Championship.
MP Motorsport contender Hauger claimed the top spot at the Red Bull Ring ahead of Joshua Durksen and Gabriel Bortoleto.
There was an early incident when the cars exited the pitlane, as Paul Aron entered the fast lane ahead of Taylor Barnard. The AIX Racing driver stopped in the middle of the fast lane and had to be pushed back by the team’s crew.
Gabriel Bortoleto initially led the standings but was quickly overtaken by Championship leader Aron and contender Hadjar, who took the lead after the first flying lap.
Victor Martins and Dennis Hauger completed the provisional top five, as the brown Dams Racing cars went off track during their first run of the session.
Villagomez and Aron were under investigation by the FIA for a possible unsafe release.
While most of the field went for another flying lap, provisional polesitter Hadjar had to return to the pitlane with smoke coming from his Red Bull liveried Campos car, indicating an engine issue. This ended the session for the French driver.
Some drivers attempted a third flying lap with the initial set of Supersofts, but no one managed to improve and returned to the pits for a new set of Pirelli tires.
After the first run, Hadjar was provisionally in first place, although he couldn’t go out again due to his engine issue. Aron and Hauger completed the provisional top three.
Bortoleto, Martins, Miyata, Marti, Fittipaldi, Durksen, and Bearman rounded out the top ten of the session.
With fifteen minutes remaining, all the drivers were on the pitlane waiting for the right moment to go out for their second run.
Meanwhile, Hadjar got out of his Campos car, confirming that the issue prevented him from continuing despite being two-tenths ahead of the rest of the grid at the end of the first run.
With less than eleven minutes left, all the drivers went out for their second run with a fresh set of Supersofts.
The drivers were creating space between each other while completing preparation laps before the final push.
Hauger was the first to show improvement, setting the provisional pole ahead of Gabriel Bortoleto and Franco Colapinto.
However, Joshua Durksen made an impressive provisional second place, splitting Hauger and Bortoleto. Aron, despite setting the fastest first sector, finished his lap in fifth.
During his second run, Aron spun after touching the gravel at Turn 6. Luckily, he avoided hitting the wall, but it ended his chances of securing pole position.
Durksen improved on his second flying lap, reducing the gap to pole position to just eight milliseconds. Hauger, on the other hand, couldn’t improve but maintained the fastest time.
Despite not being able to improve, Hauger’s time was enough to secure pole position as all the drivers crossed the finish line without improving on his 1:15.487.
Durksen finished in second place with McLaren’s junior driver Gabriel Bortoleto completing the top three in the qualifying session.
Franco Colapinto ended up in fourth place, taking advantage of Aron’s mistake, who finished the session in fifth ahead of Taylor Barnard in sixth and Hadjar in seventh following his engine failure.
Campos teammate Pepe Marti finished in eighth place with Prema’s Ollie Bearman in ninth and Kush Maini rounding out the top ten.
Maini will start in the front row for tomorrow’s race, with Bearman alongside him on the first row and both Campos cars filling the second row.
Zane Maloney, who is currently in third place in the standings, had an unusually poor session, finishing only in 20th.