Wittmann secures Pau pole

High temperatures greeted the field for this afternoon's second qualifying session, and all of the drivers improved on their morning lap times. Wittmann and Munoz were separated by just 0.095 seconds in this decisive session, having been closely matched throughout the weekend

"It is my first time in Pau, and I had a really good start to the weekend by being fastest in practice," said Wittmann. "In first qualifying, I was close to Carlos but it wasn't the perfect lap as I had a little bit of traffic. I knew I could improve, and on used tyres this afternoon I was P3, but still I wasn't sure if I could get pole. Starting from the front at this circuit, the target has to be to win."

Munoz was satisfied with his best F3 qualifying position so far on a circuit he admits to feeling particularly at home on.

"I felt comfortable straightaway on my first time here in Formula Renault," said Munoz. "Since the beginning of this weekend I've felt really strong. I was only a tenth apart from Marco, so I am pleased as I have been struggling a little bit in Euro Series qualifying. Tomorrow could be quite difficult physically because of the humidity; we were really sweating out there."

After encountering traffic on his first run, Daniel Juncadella found a clear road to post the third fastest time. Championship leader Robert Merhi completed an all Prema second row. Merhi held the top spot on 1m11.111s with a third of the session remaining, but the Spaniard failed to match his rivals' improvements on a final new tyre run.

Daniel Abt finished in fifth for Signature, 0.057s ahead of team-mate Laurens Vanthoor. The result delighted team boss Philippe Sinault.

"I was watching qualifying at Foch, as usual," said Sinault. "It is a really crazy place to see F3 cars. We are under pressure like you can't believe because it is our home race and we are fighting very hard with Prema, but I am confident that we have got on top of the Yokohama tyre now."

On his third visit to Pau, Tom Dillmann secured seventh ahead of his one-off race with Motopark Academy. Carlin's Jazeman Jaafar was again fastest of the British series drivers in eighth.

Pos  Driver             Team/Car               Time       Gap
 1.  Marco Wittmann     Signature Dallara-VW   1m10.572s
 2.  Carlos Munoz       Signature Dallara-VW   1m10.667s  + 0.095s
 3.  Daniel Juncadella  Prema Dallara-Merc     1m10.833s  + 0.261s
 4.  Roberto Merhi      Prema Dallara-Merc     1m10.941s  + 0.369s
 5.  Daniel Abt         Signature Dallara-VW   1m10.998s  + 0.426s
 6.  Laurens Vanthoor   Signature Dallara-VW   1m11.043s  + 0.471s
 7.  Tom Dillmann       Motopark Dallara-VW    1m11.209s  + 0.637s
 8.  Jazeman Jaafar     Carlin Dallara-VW      1m11.417s  + 0.845s
 9.  Pipo Derani        Double R Dallara-Merc  1m11.424s  + 0.852s
10.  Marko Asmer        Double R Dallara-Merc  1m11.492s  + 0.920s
11.  Kimiya Sato        Motopark Dallara-VW    1m11.725s  + 1.153s
12.  Carlos Huertas     Carlin Dallara-VW      1m12.081s  + 1.509s
13.  Richard Bradley    Carlin Dallara-VW      1m12.198s  + 1.626s