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Bianchi to start on Masters pole

Reigning Master of Formula 3 Jules Bianchi will start the defence of his title from pole position after finishing fastest in final qualifying at Zandvoort this afternoon

The Frenchman won a duel with his Finnish ART team-mate Valtteri Bottas to claim the top spot by just 0.032 seconds.

The 20-minute shoot-out came alive in the final 10 minutes as everyone took to the track trying to push for pole.

It became a real fight to find space in traffic and pre-season Euro Series title favourite Bianchi managed to find a gap and set a 1m31.143s best lap, with just under five minutes remaining, that could not be beaten.

"For sure this feels really good for me because we weren't very fast in the first practice session, but now we have pole so I'm really happy," said Bianchi.

"In the beginning I had lots of drivers in front of me, so I couldn't push as much as I wanted, but in the end I found a gap and even though I made a mistake and locked a wheel on my best lap, I got pole."

Reigning Formula Renault Eurocup champion Bottas used his two seasons of track experience to try and respond immediately, but came up short. With such a small gap to his team-mate and the chequered flag imminent, the team told Bottas to push harder.

But he tried to extract too much from his Dallara-Mercedes, touched the gravel approaching Mastersbocht and went off.

Nevertheless, he remained second, nearly four tenths clear of top Volkswagen runner Mika Maki (Signature), who will share the second row with fellow first qualifying pace-setter Roberto Merhi (Manor).

With the track getting hotter and dirtier, following incident-packed support races, most drivers outside the top four struggled to match their earlier qualifying pace. Stefano Coletti (Prema Powerteam) was the big exception to this pattern, finding three tenths compared with this morning, and will line up on row three as a result.

McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner Alexander Sims (Mucke) was the top Briton and will start on row four after setting the eighth fastest time.

Dutch home hero Renger van der Zande (Hitech) was on the pace this morning, but lost eight tenths this afternoon and wound up mired on an all-Dutch row five with countryman Henkie Waldschmidt (SG Formula).

Van der Zande was nevertheless the top British series runner, as British F3 Championship leader Daniel Ricciardo (Carlin) also struggled for speed and wound up 13th - one place behind Sam Bird (Mucke).

An event regulation decreeing that 50 per cent of the field must fight it out for pole in the shoot-out, rather than the top 10 from each of this morning's sessions, meant that Carlos Huertas (Double R) and Laurens Vanthoor (Carlin) both had to drop into the earlier shootout to decide the latter half of the grid.

They wound up third and fourth in that session, meaning they will start on row 11 behind session-topper Marco Wittmann (Mucke) and Walter Grubmuller (Hitech).

Practice pace-setter Esteban Gutierrez (ART) will line up on row 16 after another qualifying off that left him stranded in the Mastersbocht gravel trap.

Pos  Driver                Team       Car  Time
 1.  Jules Bianchi         ART        D/M  1m31.143s
 2.  Valtteri Bottas       ART        D/M  1m31.175s
 3.  Mika Maki             Signature  D/V  1m31.462s
 4.  Roberto Merhi         Manor      D/M  1m31.538s
 5.  Stefano Coletti       Prema      D/M  1m31.557s
 6.  Jean-Karl Vernay      Signature  D/V  1m31.806s
 7.  Christian Vietoris    Mucke      D/M  1m31.818s
 8.  Alexander Sims        Mucke      D/M  1m31.863s
 9.  Renger van der Zande  Hitech     D/M  1m32.035s
10.  Henkie Waldschmidt    SG         D/M  1m32.051s
11.  Tiago Geronimi        Signature  D/V  1m32.121s
12.  Sam Bird              Mucke      D/M  1m32.326s
13.  Daniel Ricciardo      Carlin     D/V  1m32.449s
14.  Christopher Zanella   Motopark   D/M  1m32.489s
15.  Adrien Tambay         ART        D/M  1m32.497s
16.  Atte Mustonen         Motopark   D/M  1m32.518s
17.  Basil Shaaban         Prema      D/M  1m32.709s
18.  Matteo Chinosi        Prema      D/M  1m33.119s
19.  Marco Wittmann        Mucke      D/M  1m32.869s
20.  Walter Grubmuller     Hitech     D/M  1m32.985s
21.  Carlos Huertas        Double R   D/M  1m33.002s
22.  Laurens Vanthoor      Carlin     D/V  1m33.228s
23.  Riki Christodoulou    Fortec     D/M  1m33.330s
24.  Franceso Castellacci  Manor      D/M  1m33.332s
25.  Victor Garcia         Fortec     D/M  1m33.536s
26.  Pedro Nunes           Manor      D/M  1m33.606s
27.  Cesar Ramos           Manor      D/M  1m33.614s
28.  Andrea Caldarelli     SG         D/M  1m33.614s
29.  Daisuke Nakajima      Double R   D/M  1m33.644s
30.  Daniel Zampieri       BVM        D/H  1m33.644s
31.  Max Chilton           Carlin     D/V  1m33.651s
32.  Esteban Gutierrez     ART        D/M  1m33.723s
33.  Jake Rosenzweig       Carlin     D/V  1m33.747s
34.  Henry Arundel         Carlin     D/V  1m34.049s
35.  Samuele Buttarelli    Carlin     D/V  1m34.177s
36.  Alexandre Marsoin     SG         D/M  1m34.561s

Positions 1-18 decided in qualifying 4
Positions 19-36 in qualifying 3

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