Bianchi takes home pole at Dijon

The ART driver was 0.4s clear of his rivals, who were headed by fellow Frenchman Jean Karl Vernay. The Signature driver narrowly prevented an ART lock-out of the front row by out-pacing Valtteri Bottas by just 0.02s.

Mika Maki made the second row a mirror image of the first by setting the fourth best time in his Signature Dallara-VW.

Bianchi's only title challenger Christian Vietoris faces an uphill struggle tomorrow from seventh on the grid, lining up behind SG's Andrea Caldarelli and his Mucke team-mate Marco Wittman.

It was a tough session for the Britons, with Mucke's Sam Bird 10th, almost a second down on Bianchi, while his team-mate Alexander Sims will line up way back in 15th.

Series returnee Robert Wickens will start from 18th for Kolles and Heinz Union, while Esteban Gutierrez, who was second fastest to Bianchi in testing, crashed early on in the session, bringing out the red flag. ART's Mexican driver plummeted down the timesheets to 21st.

Pos  Driver                Team            Car  Time       Gap
 1.  Jules Bianchi         ART             D/M  1m10.111s
 2.  Jean Karl Vernay      Signature       D/V  1m10.502s  + 0.391
 3.  Valtteri Bottas       ART             D/M  1m10.523s  + 0.412
 4.  Mika Maki             Signature       D/V  1m10.773s  + 0.662
 5.  Andrea Caldarelli     SG              D/M  1m10.809s  + 0.698
 6.  Marco Wittmann        Mucke           D/M  1m10.903s  + 0.792
 7.  Christian Vietoris    Mucke           D/M  1m10.905s  + 0.794
 8.  Christopher Zanella   Motopark        D/M  1m10.910s  + 0.799
 9.  Adrien Tambay         ART             D/M  1m10.920s  + 0.809
10.  Sam Bird              Mucke           D/M  1m11.021s  + 0.910
11.  Roberto Merhi         Manor           D/M  1m11.023s  + 0.912
12.  Tom Dillmann          Prema           D/M  1m11.074s  + 0.963
13.  Jake Rosenzweig       Carlin          D/V  1m11.077s  + 0.966
14.  Henkie Waldschmidt    SG              D/M  1m11.080s  + 0.969
15.  Alexander Sims        Mucke           D/M  1m11.114s  + 1.003
16.  Brendon Hartley       Carlin          D/V  1m11.319s  + 1.208
17.  Tiago Geronimi        Signature       D/V  1m11.441s  + 1.330
18.  Renger van der Zande  Motopark        D/M  1m11.496s  + 1.385
19.  Robert Wickens        Kolles & Heinz  D/V  1m11.537s  + 1.426
20.  Stefano Coletti       Prema           D/M  1m11.616s  + 1.505
21.  Esteban Gutierrez     ART             D/M  1m11.718s  + 1.607
22.  Pedro Enrique         Manor           D/M  1m11.741s  + 1.630
23.  Johan Jokinen         Kolles & Heinz  D/V  1m12.085s  + 1.974