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Adrian Quaife-Hobbs takes pole for Auto GP debut at Monza

GP3 graduate Adrian Quaife-Hobbs claimed pole position for his maiden Auto GP race at Monza

The Super Nova racer, who completed minimal pre-event testing, knocked Italian Formula 3 champion Sergio Campana off the top of the timing screens with five minutes of the half-hour session remaining.

Quaife-Hobbs later ran wide at the second Lesmo while attempting to defend his advantage, but his earlier effort of 1m36.603 sufficed to secure pole.

"In practice I felt confident," said Quaife-Hobbs. "There were always little mistakes or things I that could have done better on my fastest laps, so I knew there was more to come."

Friday morning pacesetter Sergey Sirotkin will join Quaife-Hobbs on the front row for Euronova. The Russian languished in the midfield for much of the session, before leaping up the order with a lap just 0.041 seconds shy of Quaife-Hobbs' benchmark effort.

Campana (MLR 71) would end the afternoon in third. The local racer moved into top spot a third of the way into the half session, before trading fastest times with Virtuosi UK's Pal Varhaug, who will share row two with him.

Manor MP Motorsport's experienced recruit Chris van der Drift returned to Europe from his native New Zealand earlier this week, but shrugged off the jetlag to claim a solid fifth on his Auto GP debut.

Van der Drift edged out Brazilian Victor Guerin (Super Nova) by less than 0.1s. Guerin set the initial qualifying pace, but ran straight through Monza's chicanes on a couple of occasions during an eventful session.

Pos  Driver               Team         Time       Gap
 1.  Adrian Quaife-Hobbs  Super Nova   1m36.603s
 2.  Sergey Sirotkin      Euronova     1m36.644s  + 0.041s
 3.  Sergio Campana       MLR71        1m36.748s  + 0.145s
 4.  Pal Varhaug          Virtuosi UK  1m36.941s  + 0.338s
 5.  Chris van der Drift  Manor MP     1m37.286s  + 0.683s
 6.  Victor Guerin        Super Nova   1m37.349s  + 0.746s
 7.  Antonio Spavone      Euronova     1m37.553s  + 0.950s
 8.  Facu Regalia         Campos       1m37.581s  + 0.978s
 9.  Giacomo Ricci        Zele         1m37.766s  + 1.163s
10.  Daniel de Jong       Manor MP     1m37.862s  + 1.259s
11.  Adderly Fong         Ombra        1m38.076s  + 1.473s
12.  Giuseppe Cipriani    Campos       1m38.132s  + 1.529s
13.  Maxim Snegirev       Campos       1m38.699s  + 2.096s
14.  Matteo Beretta       Virtuosi UK  1m39.271s  + 2.668s
15.  Michele la Rosa      MLR71        1m39.721s  + 3.118s
16.  Giancarlo Serenelli  Ombra        1m39.805s  + 3.202s

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