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Title outsider Adrian Quaife-Hobbs takes GP3 pole at Monza

Adrian Quaife-Hobbs kept his very slim GP3 title hopes alive with a last-ditch lap for pole position at Monza

The Briton, who missed out on track time after a collision with Lewis Williamson in second practice on Friday, shot to the top of the times as the chequered flag fell. The two bonus points for pole leave Quaife-Hobbs 17 adrift of Valtteri Bottas with 18 still available this weekend.

The Manor driver's pole lap demoted Jenzer's Nico Muller to second, after the Swiss driver had moved up from the midfield places to take pole just a minute earlier.

Rio Haryanto made it two Manor cars in the top three after enjoying a very brief spell at the top, while MW Arden's Mitch Evans also put in a late effort of his own to demote the two drivers leading the title fight to the third row.

Championship leader Bottas took provisional pole on three separate occasions in the early stages of the session, while his ART team-mate and closest title rival James Calado sat eighth at the halfway stage.

Bottas was one of the first drivers to head out on his second set of tyres with 11 minutes remaining, and there was a potential flashpoint when Calado lunged the Finn into the first chicane as they both tried to find their way through a queue of cars a couple of minutes later.

Calado's risk appeared to have paid off as he took pole with that lap, while Bottas aborted his attempt due to being forced wide at the first corner.

The improvements of others left Calado fifth ahead of Bottas, but those positions were reversed at the end when the championship leader made a small gain despite encountering traffic through the Lesmo bends and the Ascari chicane.

Of the other drivers with an outside shot at the title, Alexander Sims (Status) will start 11th with Nigel Melker (RSC Mucke) 13th.

Pos  Driver                  Team       Time       Gap
 1.  Adrian Quaife-Hobbs     Manor      1m43.788s
 2.  Nico Muller             Jenzer     1m43.850s  + 0.062s
 3.  Rio Haryanto            Manor      1m43.943s  + 0.155s
 4.  Mitch Evans             MW Arden   1m44.030s  + 0.242s
 5.  Valtteri Bottas         ART        1m44.058s  + 0.270s
 6.  James Calado            ART        1m44.093s  + 0.305s
 7.  Simon Trummer           MW Arden   1m44.215s  + 0.427s
 8.  Michael Christensen     RSC Mucke  1m44.241s  + 0.453s
 9.  Tamas Pal Kiss          Tech 1     1m44.256s  + 0.468s
10.  Tom Dillmann            Addax      1m44.263s  + 0.475s
11.  Alexander Sims          Status     1m44.288s  + 0.500s
12.  Ivan Lukashevich        Status     1m44.465s  + 0.677s
13.  Nigel Melker            RSC Mucke  1m44.471s  + 0.683s
14.  Antonio Felix da Costa  Status     1m44.475s  + 0.687s
15.  Gabby Chaves            Addax      1m44.560s  + 0.772s
16.  Aaro Vainio             Tech 1     1m44.584s  + 0.796s
17.  Conor Daly              Carlin     1m44.715s  + 0.927s
18.  Zoel Amberg             Atech CRS  1m44.765s  + 0.977s
19.  Lewis Williamson        MW Arden   1m44.800s  + 1.012s
20.  Mattias Laine           Manor      1m44.858s  + 1.070s
21.  Vittorio Ghirelli       Addax      1m44.867s  + 1.079s
22.  Maxim Zimin             Jenzer     1m44.981s  + 1.193s
23.  Richie Stanaway         ART        1m45.004s  + 1.216s
24.  Callum Macleod          Carlin     1m45.076s  + 1.288s
25.  Marlon Stockinger       Atech CRS  1m45.293s  + 1.505s
26.  Daniel Mancinelli       RSC Mucke  1m45.330s  + 1.542s
27.  Thomas Hylkema          Tech 1     1m45.363s  + 1.575s
28.  Nick Yelloly            Atech CRS  1m45.760s  + 1.972s
29.  Leonardo Cordeiro       Carlin     1m45.841s  + 2.053s
30.  Christophe Hurni        Jenzer     1m46.355s  + 2.567s

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