Palmer clinches first Monza pole

Mihai Marinescu set the early running in and was comfortably fastest at the half-time pitstops for new tyres. But the pace picked up towards the end and Johan Jokinen beat the Romanian's time.

Marinescu was back on top a couple of laps later, but only for a matter of seconds before Jokinen retaliated with an ever quicker lap.

Just as Jokinen seemed to have seen off Marinescu and secured pole, Palmer took advantage of a slipstream from Benjamin Bailly and posted a 1m41.722s lap - seven hundredths quicker - to seal his second pole position of the season.

"I was trying to find a tow but it was fortunate that I got such a run from Benjamin," said Palmer. "But it was a good lap and it's great to be on pole here."

Kazim Vasiliauskas had been in the fight as well, snatching second place with one of the first laps on the second set of tyres, but he ended up fourth - just 0.044s slower than Marinescu.

Those were the only four drivers to break into the 1m41s, with Nicola de Marco leading the rest of the field in fifth place for his home race. Ricardo Teixeira was sixth quickest, ahead of Armaan Ebrahim, Marrakech winner Dean Stoneman, Jack Clarke and Will Bratt completing the top 10. Points leader Philipp Eng qualified just 11th.

Pos Driver                       Time       Gap     Laps
 1. Jolyon Palmer                1m41.722s            12
 2. Johan Jokinen                1m41.796s  +0.074    14
 3. Mihai Marinescu              1m41.910s  +0.188    15
 4. Kazim Vasiliauskas           1m41.954s  +0.232    15
 5. Nicola de Marco              1m42.079s  +0.357    14
 6. Ricardo Teixeira             1m42.151s  +0.429    13
 7. Armaan Ebrahim               1m42.192s  +0.470    13
 8. Dean Stoneman                1m42.275s  +0.553    11
 9. Jack Clarke                  1m42.348s  +0.626    15
10. Will Bratt                   1m42.362s  +0.640    15
11. Philipp Eng                  1m42.382s  +0.660    14
12. Kelvin Snoeks                1m42.416s  +0.694    15
13. Benjamin Bailly              1m42.449s  +0.727    14
14. Benjamin Lariche             1m42.512s  +0.790    15
15. Paul Rees                    1m42.675s  +0.953    14
16. Ivan Samarin                 1m42.689s  +0.967    15
17. Plamen Kralev                1m43.342s  +1.620    12
18. Natalia Kowalska             1m43.553s  +1.831    14
19. Parthiva Sureshwaren         1m43.701s  +1.979     9
20. Ajith Kumar                  1m46.790s  +5.068    14