Ricciardo relieved to get pole

The Australian received a scare when he spun off late in the session, but a strong earlier run on new tyres sufficed to maintain his provisional pole.

Ricciardo will start directly ahead of championship rival, Carlin's points leader, Mikhail Aleshin.

"Usually people improve at the end of these sessions, so I was thinking that on the last lap I would be getting dropped quite a few positions," said Ricciardo. "I also knew that my best time would be deleted.

"Even knowing my second best lap was just a tenth slower, I was still pretty p****d off as I thought it was over.

"I guess that my first run of three good laps back-to-back set me up for the pole. People might say we were lucky, but we did it by being the fastest, even though spinning is not really what you want to do in qualifying! I am really happy. We have all set the show now with the top-three starting in the top-three grid positions."

Title rival Aleshin stated satisfaction with his front row grid slot, despite being unable to topple Ricciardo's benchmark over the final minutes of the session.

"It wasn't difficult going out with time for just one flying lap," said Aleshin, "the problem was that the tyres were already no longer at their best. Still, I am very happy to be on the front row, and I think we are going to make some changes on the car for the race."

Fourth qualifier Nathanael Berthon will receive a four-place grid penalty for speeding in the pitlane at the previous meeting at Silverstone.

Fortec Motorsport's Jon Lancaster, who qualified ninth, will also drop four positions for the same offence. Finally, P1 Motorsport's Walter Grubmuller is demoted from 14th to 18th, for not giving priority to a car in the Silverstone pit's fastlane.