Bottas takes race one pole at Brands

The ART driver headed the quicker of the two qualifying groups with a great lap of 41.438s. This was over a tenth faster than Mika Maki's time that lead the second group.

The biggest shock of the session was that runaway championship leader Jules Bianchi will start from the eighth row of the grid for tomorrow's race. The Frenchman had just recorded the fastest time when he spun his ART car into the barriers on the exit of Paddock, breaking off the rear wing and ending his session in the process.

His nearest title challenger Christian Vietoris will line up fourth.

It was a good session for McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award winner Alex Sims, who was narrowly beaten to the quickest overall time by Bottas, and will line up third on the grid.

Fellow Brit Sam Bird was just fractions behind Sims, but will not line up fifth on the grid after picking up a five-place grid penalty for setting a fastest sector time while a yellow flag waved during free practice.

Nick Tandy enjoyed his most competitive session of the year so far and was just 0.3s off Bottas's pace, but such was the competitiveness of the group that he will start alongside Bianchi on the eighth row.

Group 1
Pos Driver                 Team        Car     Time        Gap
 1. Mika Maki              Signature   D/V     41.551s
 2. Christian Vietoris     Mucke       D/M     41.660s  +0.109
 3. Esteban Gutierrez      ART         D/M     41.692s  +0.141
 4. Brendon Hartley        Carlin      D/V     41.835s  +0.284
 5. Johan Jokinen          Kolles      D/V     41.904s  +0.353
 6. Tiago Geronimi         Signature   D/V     41.972s  +0.421
 7. Cesar Ramos            Manor       D/M     41.988s  +0.437
 8. Jules Bianchi          ART         D/M     42.027s  +0.476
 9. Tim Sandtler           Prema       D/M     42.082s  +0.531
10. Henkie Waldschmidt     SG          D/M     42.156s  +0.605
11. Basil Shaaban          Prema       D/M     42.372s  +0.821

Group 2
Pos Driver                 Team        Car     Time        Gap
 1.  Valtteri Bottas       ART         D/M     41.438s
 2.  Alexander Sims        Mucke       D/M     41.548s  +0.110
 3.  Sam Bird              Mucke       D/M     41.563s  +0.125
 4.  Christopher Zanella   Motopark    D/M     41.620s  +0.182
 5.  Jake Rosenzweig       Carlin      D/V     41.680s  +0.242
 6.  Adrien Tambay         ART         D/M     41.686s  +0.248
 7.  Roberto Merhi         Manor       D/M     41.690s  +0.252
 8.  Nick Tandy            Kolles      D/V     41.804s  +0.366
 9.  Jean-Karl Vernay      Signature   D/V     41.821s  +0.383
10.  Marco Wittmann        Mucke       D/M     41.834s  +0.396
11.  Andrea Caldarelli     SG          D/M     41.981s  +0.543
12.  Pedro Nunes           Manor       D/M     42.578s  +1.140