The top four drivers in the FIA European F3 Championship have claimed the top four places in qualifying for the FIA F3 World Cup at Macau

Swede Joel Eriksson (Motorpark with VEB Dallara VW), second in the 2017 European title, outpaced his rival by just 0.024sc to claim pole for the 10 lap qualifying race.

Eriksson laid down a time of 2m10.720s from Norris (Carlin Dallara VW) 2m10.744s

Norris believed two small mistakes on his flying lap cost him the deficit.

Callum Ilott (SJM Theodore Racing by Prema) claimed third on the last flying lap of the session with a 2m10.810s from teammate Maximillian Gunther on 2m11.245s.

Mick Schumacher, another SJM Theodore Racing by Prema driver was the fastest Macau debutante in seventh position on 2m11.483s.

Six drivers held fastest time in a session which saw laps tumble for the first time into the 2m10s barrier.

Norris was the first to break into the 2m10s and when Eriksson went fastest it seemed the session was set up for a massive fight to the end.

But after a red flag five minutes from the scheduled finish of the session, Norris stepped from his car and did not contest the last two flying laps.

“It was a bit of a risk," he said.

“My tyres had gone off and I was satisfied with second.

“But it could have been that others challenged too and put me further back – so I was lucky that did not happen.”

Four red flags interrupted and finally halted the electrifying qualifying session as Jehan Daruvala (Carlin Dallara VW), Sergio Sette Camara (Motopark with VEB Dallara VW), Guanyu Zhou (SJM Theodore Racing by Prema Dallara Mercedes0 and finally Yuhi Sekiguchi (B-Max Racing Dallara VW) were eliminated in crashes with the wall.

Drivers face a 10 lap qualifying race followed by the FIA F3 World Cup over 15 laps on Sunday.