Nurburgring FR3.5: Carlos Sainz Jr snatches pole from Fortec duo

The session, which was delayed due to fog at the German venue, started an hour late and was shortened to 25 minutes.

Fortec duo Sergey Sirotkin and Oliver Rowland seemed in control throughout, leading the way after the first runs and asserting themselves at the top again as the times tumbled in the last couple of minutes - this time with the Briton ahead.

But DAMS driver Sainz, who had not sat on top of the order once during the session, moved to the head of the field with less than 10 seconds remaining.

By that time both Rowland and Sirotkin were touring back to the pits. The Russian also spun in front of the Briton in the closing stages.

Free practice pacesetter Roberto Merhi ultimately joined them in setting a time within one tenth of Sainz's best.

Behind the top four, Marlon Stockinger and Matias Laine made up the third row, while Oscar Tunjo and Pietro Fantin - who both had a brief spell at the top having been two of the first drivers to take a second set of tyres, completed the top eight.

In a session where track conditions were constantly improving as the fog lifted, the main driver to suffer was Sainz's fellow Red Bull junior and closest title challenger Pierre Gasly, who ended the session 17th.

Pos  Driver               Team     Time       Gap
 1.  Carlos Sainz Jr      DAMS     1m40.820s
 2.  Oliver Rowland       Fortec   1m40.845s  +0.025s
 3.  Sergey Sirotkin      Fortec   1m40.862s  +0.042s
 4.  Roberto Merhi        Zeta     1m40.902s  +0.082s
 5.  Marlon Stockinger    Lotus    1m40.921s  +0.101s
 6.  Matias Laine         Strakka  1m41.033s  +0.213s
 7.  Oscar Tunjo          Pons     1m41.142s  +0.322s
 8.  Pietro Fantin        Draco    1m41.254s  +0.434s
 9.  Luca Ghiotto         Draco    1m41.366s  +0.546s
10.  Zoel Amberg          AVF      1m41.367s  +0.547s
11.  Beitske Visser       AVF      1m41.367s  +0.547s
12.  Will Stevens         Strakka  1m41.448s  +0.628s
13.  Will Buller          Arden    1m41.469s  +0.649s
14.  Marco Sorensen       Tech 1   1m41.531s  +0.711s
15.  Norman Nato          DAMS     1m41.573s  +0.753s
16.  Meindert van Buuren  Pons     1m41.628s  +0.808s
17.  Pierre Gasly         Arden    1m41.676s  +0.856s
18.  Matthieu Vaxiviere   Lotus    1m41.788s  +0.968s
19.  Roman Mavlanov       Zeta     1m41.864s  +1.044s
20.  Jazeman Jaafar       ISR      1m42.308s  +1.488s
21.  Alfonso Celis        Tech 1   1m42.676s  +1.856s
22.  Cameron Twynham      Comtec   1m42.815s  +1.995s