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Nurburgring FR3.5: Roberto Merhi dominates wet qualifying

Roberto Merhi dominated a wet Formula Renault 3.5 qualifying session at the Nurburgring to take pole position for race two on Sunday

The ex-DTM racer, who finished second to championship leader Carlos Sainz in race one, set the pace for much of the session, and was able to respond every time any of his closest rivals made gains.

With track conditions improving, most of the key laps came in the final minute of the session, and Merhi - who rejoined the track later than anyone else for his second run - ended up setting two laps good enough for pole.

Title contenders Sainz and Oliver Rowland appeared set to line up behind the Zeta Corse driver, but they were pipped at the end by Oscar Tunjo.

Behind them, row three on the grid is an all-Lotus affair, with the returning Matthieu Vaxiviere and Marlon Stockinger alongside each other.

Race one podium finisher Sergey Sirotkin was a regular towards the front of the times for much of the session, but as the pace picked up at the end he was shuffled back to seventh.

At the tail of the field, Red Bull junior Pierre Gasly's miserable weekend continued, leaving him on the back row of the grid.

Pos  Driver               Team     Time       Gap
 1.  Roberto Merhi        Zeta     1m59.409s
 2.  Oscar Tunjo          Pons     1m59.781s  +0.372s
 3.  Carlos Sainz Jr      DAMS     1m59.960s  +0.551s
 4.  Oliver Rowland       Fortec   2m00.231s  +0.822s
 5.  Matthieu Vaxiviere   Lotus    2m00.389s  +0.980s
 6.  Marlon Stockinger    Lotus    2m00.520s  +1.111s
 7.  Sergey Sirotkin      Fortec   2m00.689s  +1.280s
 8.  Zoel Amberg          AVF      2m00.923s  +1.514s
 9.  Pietro Fantin        Draco    2m00.947s  +1.538s
10.  Will Stevens         Strakka  2m01.100s  +1.691s
11.  Roman Mavlanov       Zeta     2m01.190s  +1.781s
12.  Marco Sorensen       Tech 1   2m01.221s  +1.812s
13.  Jazeman Jaafar       ISR      2m01.246s  +1.837s
14.  Norman Nato          DAMS     2m01.447s  +2.038s
15.  Luca Ghiotto         Draco    2m01.585s  +2.176s
16.  Matias Laine         Strakka  2m01.832s  +2.423s
17.  Will Buller          Arden    2m01.887s  +2.478s
18.  Meindert van Buuren  Pons     2m01.971s  +2.562s
19.  Alfonso Celis        Tech 1   2m02.127s  +2.718s
20.  Beitske Visser       AVF      2m02.802s  +3.393s
21.  Pierre Gasly         Arden    2m02.836s  +3.427s
22.  Cameron Twynham      Comtec   2m04.267s  +4.858s

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