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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