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Nurburgring FR3.5: Rowland gets pole in red-flagged Saturday qualifying

Championship leader Oliver Rowland put himself in a position to profit from a well-timed late red flag, which gave the Brit his fourth pole of the season.

Oliver Rowland, Fortec Motorsports

Oliver Rowland, Fortec Motorsports

Daniel James Smith

Oliver Rowland, Fortec Motorsports
Oliver Rowland, Fortec Motorsports
Nyck de Vries, DAMS
Nyck de Vries, DAMS
Tio Ellinas, Strakka Racing

While tyrewear normally limits the amount of laps the FR3.5 field can afford to run in qualifying trim, the cold conditions at the Nurburgring meant drivers could run more flyers than usual - and, at the halfway point, Rowland's eighth lap of 1m41.004s already put him almost a second up on his practice benchmark.

But it also took the drivers a while to warm up their new sets in the second stint and, just as several of the frontrunners started to post improved sectors, the red flag came out.

Carlin's Tom Dillmann was the culprit, stopping at Turn 1 with less than two minutes to go and the qualifying session was immediately called as a potential restart would not leave enough time for even a single flyer.

As such, Rowland picked up pole, while McLaren junior Nyck de Vries was two tenths behind in second - but dropped down to fourth due to a penalty from Silverstone.

Tio Ellinas, first-time winner a week ago at the British track, inherited a front row spot, while Dillmann provisionally took third, although could lose his best lap due to bringing out the red flag.

Championship contender Matthieu Vaxiviere was fifth, ahead of Jazeman Jaafar, Pietro Fantin and Dean Stoneman.

Roy Nissany - among the few to improve in the second part of the session - moved up to ninth ahead of Gustav Malja.

Of Pons Racing's all-new lineup, Yu Kanamaru finished an impressive 11th, while Rene Binder took 19th.

Pos. Driver Team Time Gap
1 Oliver Rowland Fortec Motorsports 1'41.004  
2 Nyck de Vries DAMS 1'41.217 0.213
3 Tio Ellinas Strakka Racing 1'41.230 0.226
4 Tom Dillmann Jagonya Ayam with Carlin 1'41.236 0.232
5 Matthieu Vaxiviere Lotus 1'41.381 0.377
6 Jazeman Jaafar Fortec Motorsports 1'41.457 0.453
7 Pietro Fantin International Draco Racing 1'41.526 0.522
8 Dean Stoneman DAMS 1'41.554 0.550
9 Roy Nissany Tech 1 Racing 1'41.662 0.658
10 Gustav Malja Strakka Racing 1'41.876 0.872
11 Yu Kanamaru Pons Racing 1'42.010 1.006
12 Beitske Visser AVF 1'42.014 1.010
13 Marlon Stockinger Lotus 1'42.018 1.014
14 Aurelien Panis Tech 1 Racing 1'42.166 1.162
15 Alfonso Celis AVF 1'42.232 1.228
16 Egor Orudzhev Arden Motorsport 1'42.389 1.385
17 Nicholas Latifi Arden Motorsport 1'42.402 1.398
18 Bruno Bonifacio International Draco Racing 1'42.504 1.500
19 Rene Binder Pons Racing 1'42.827 1.823
20 Sean Gelael Jagonya Ayam with Carlin 1'43.093 2.089

 

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