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Bianchi secures pole at Zandvoort

Formula 3 Euro Series championship leader Jules Bianchi took pole position for race one at Zandvoort in a qualifying session disrupted by stoppages

The 30-minute session was halted three times in the final quarter of an hour, meaning that most drivers were unable to put a run of laps together on their second set of tyres.

Bianchi had held the top spot prior to the first red flag, and he was one of the few drivers to get a faster lap in during one of the brief periods between stoppages, to extend his margin at the top of the order to more than two tenths of a second.

The ART driver spent most of the session fending off his rookie team-mate Valtteri Bottas, who won the F3 Masters event at the same track last month. However, the Finn was bumped down to fourth by the experienced pair of Christian Vietoris and Jean Karl Vernay later on.

That means that the top three in the championship battle will start together at the front of the field, with Bottas and his countryman Mika Maki completing the top five on the grid.

Behind them, Roberto Merhi moved into sixth place in the second half of the session, while Christopher Zanella took and impressive seventh ahead of Esteban Gutierrez, who had been on the fringe of the battle for pole throughout.

Several drivers would have been hoping for a clean run in the final few minutes of the session, but after a third red flag with just two minutes to go, nobody was able to get enough heat into their tyres to make their one flying lap after the restart count.

Pos  Driver               Team              Car  Time       Gap
 1.  Jules Bianchi        ART               D/M  1m30.431s
 2.  Christian Vietoris   Mucke             D/M  1m30.709s  + 0.278s
 3.  Jean Karl Vernay     Signature         D/V  1m30.807s  + 0.376s
 4.  Valtteri Bottas      ART               D/M  1m31.053s  + 0.622s
 5.  Mika Maki            Signature         D/V  1m31.309s  + 0.878s
 6.  Roberto Merhi        Manor             D/M  1m31.415s  + 0.984s
 7.  Christopher Zanella  Motopark Academy  D/M  1m31.416s  + 0.985s
 8.  Esteban Gutierrez    ART               D/M  1m31.514s  + 1.083s
 9.  Tiago Geronimi       Signature         D/V  1m31.622s  + 1.191s
10.  Andrea Caldarelli    SG                D/M  1m31.689s  + 1.258s
11.  Stefano Coletti      Prema             D/M  1m31.704s  + 1.273s
12.  Jake Rosenzweig      Carlin            D/V  1m31.926s  + 1.495s
13.  Henkie Waldschmidt   SG                D/M  1m32.023s  + 1.592s
14.  Marco Wittmann       Mucke             D/M  1m32.118s  + 1.687s
15.  Sam Bird             Mucke             D/M  1m32.190s  + 1.759s
16.  Adrien Tambay        ART               D/M  1m32.221s  + 1.790s
17.  Nick Tandy           Kolles & Heinz    D/V  1m32.277s  + 1.846s
18.  Alexander Sims       Mucke             D/M  1m32.304s  + 1.873s
19.  Brendon Hartley      Carlin            D/V  1m32.402s  + 1.971s
20.  Atte Mustonen        Motopark Academy  D/M  1m32.588s  + 2.157s
21.  Matteo Chinosi       Prema             D/M  1m32.662s  + 2.231s
22.  Pedro Enrique        Manor             D/M  1m32.906s  + 2.475s
23.  Kevin Mirocha        HBR               D/M  1m33.339s  + 2.908s
24.  Johnny Cecotto       HBR               D/M  1m33.614s  + 3.183s
25.  Basil Shaaban        Prema             D/M  1m33.815s  + 3.384s
26.  Johan Jokinen        Kolles & Heinz    D/V  1m33.889s  + 3.458s
27.  Cesar Ramos          Manor             D/M

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