Adam Carroll on pole for Auto GP debut at Donington Park

The 28-year-old Brit, who only signed for Campos Racing earlier this week, had it all to do when a spin by Giuseppe Cipriani brought out the red flags with four minutes left on the clock.

Carroll took full advantage, lapping the circuit in 1m16.891s to knock Luca Filippi's Supernova car off the top spot for Saturday's opening race by 0.305s.

"I wasn't taking this pole for granted; it arrived thanks to a really amazing lap, in which I improved my previous time by four tenths," said Carroll.

"It was already a good lap, so being able to go so much quicker surprised me, but this means that my feeling with the car and with the Michelin tyres is already very good."

Championship leader Filippi hung on to his front row spot while Samuele Buttarelli (TP Formula), Jon Lancaster (Supernova) and Kevin Ceccon (Ombra Racing) were next up.

Lazarus duo Fabrizio Crestani and Fabio Onidi were unable to reproduce their free practice times and will start only sixth and seventh.

The remaining Campos cars of Bruno Mendez and Adrian Campos Jr plus Daniel de Jong's MP entry completed the top 10.

GP3 regular Rio Haryanto will start 15th and last after an off early in the session.

Pos  Driver                Team        Time       Gap
 1.  Adam Carroll          Campos      1m16.891s
 2.  Luca Filippi          Super Nova  1m17.196s  + 0.305s
 3.  Stefano Buttarelli    TP          1m17.331s  + 0.440s
 4.  Jon Lancaster         Super Nova  1m17.558s  + 0.667s
 5.  Kevin Ceccon          Ombra       1m17.733s  + 0.842s
 6.  Fabrizio Crestani     Lazarus     1m17.768s  + 0.877s
 7.  Fabio Onidi           Lazarus     1m17.966s  + 1.075s
 8.  Bruno Mendez          Campos      1m17.986s  + 1.095s
 9.  Adrian Campos Jr      Campos      1m18.115s  + 1.224s
10.  Daniel de Jong        MP          1m18.285s  + 1.394s
11.  Giovanni Venturini    Durango     1m18.354s  + 1.463s
12.  Pasquale di Sabatino  TP          1m18.387s  + 1.496s
13.  Giuseppe Cipriani     Durango     1m19.451s  + 2.560s
14.  Francesco Dracone     Emmebi      1m20.915s  + 4.024s
15.  Rio Haryanto          DAMS        1m25.229s  + 8.338s