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Adrian Quaife-Hobbs takes Algarve Auto GP pole

Auto GP championship leader Adrian Quaife-Hobbs claimed his fourth pole position of the season courtesy of a controlled performance in qualifying for round six at Algarve

The Briton posted an early effort of 1m33.120s to move into first, and thereafter was never headed.

Quaife-Hobbs' only drama came at the end of qualifying. Having set his eventual pole time of 1m32.342s with three minutes of the half-hour session remaining, the Super Nova racer stopped out on track reporting a suspected suspension problem.

Argentinean Facu Regalia achieved his highest qualifying position of the year in second. Regalia's Campos Racing crew dealt with last minute repairs before the session, after suffering broken camber points in final free practice.

Quaife-Hobbs' Super Nova team-mate Victor Guerin will start Saturday's opening race in third. The Brazilian has recent experience of Portimao having contested last month's Formula 2 meeting, and is also taking in a limited GP2 programme with Ocean.

"My only other race confirmed in GP2 is Valencia, after that we'll see," said Guerin. "After GP2 in Monaco, my first time back in this car was on Thursday. I locked all of the wheels as I was still using my approach from the GP2 carbon brakes, whereas these are steel. At the start of the weekend I was a long way off Quaife-Hobbs, but we made a lot of changes to the car before qualifying and it's now much better. I just wish I had this car at the start of the weekend."

Italian Formula 3 champion Sergio Campana ended the afternoon a provisional fourth, but the MLR 71 driver is under investigation for a yellow flag infringement.

Virtuosi UK's Pal Varhaug's expected challenge failed to materialise. The Norwegian had rivalled Quaife-Hobbs for pace throughout practice, but a suspected fuel system gremlin prevented Varhaug from taking to the track in the final few minutes.

Formula Abarth Europe champion Sergey Sirotkin was another driver unable to fulfil his potential in sixth. The Euronova Racing charge could not post a time on soft tyres due to a large piece of Astroturf becoming lodged in his front wing.

The session was red-flagged just before midway point when Campana's MLR 71 team-mate Michele la Rosa stopped at Turn 4.

Pos  Driver               Team         Time       Gap
 1.  Adrian Quaife-Hobbs  Super Nova   1m32.342s
 2.  Facu Regalia         Campos       1m32.625s  + 0.283s
 3.  Victor Guerin        Super Nova   1m32.649s  + 0.307s
 4.  Sergio Campana       MLR 71       1m32.677s  + 0.335s
 5.  Pal Varhaug          Virtuosi UK  1m32.953s  + 0.611s
 6.  Sergey Sirotkin      Euronova     1m32.976s  + 0.634s
 7.  Chris van der Drift  Manor MP     1m33.091s  + 0.749s
 8.  Daniel de Jong       Manor MP     1m33.130s  + 0.788s
 9.  Sten Pentus          Zele         1m33.291s  + 0.949s
10.  Juan Carlos Sistos   Zele         1m33.508s  + 1.166s
11.  Maxim Snegirev       Campos       1m33.929s  + 1.587s
12.  Francesco Dracone    Virtuosi UK  1m34.120s  + 1.778s
13.  Antonio Spavone      Euronova     1m34.187s  + 1.845s
14.  Giancarlo Serenelli  Ombra        1m34.241s  + 1.899s
15.  Giuseppe Cipriani    Campos       1m34.837s  + 2.495s
16.  Michele la Rosa      MLR 71       1m35.325s  + 2.983s

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