GP3 Malaysia: Ferrari protege Leclerc takes third-straight pole

The Monegasque driver, who on Thursday was ruled out of being signed to a Formula 1 seat for 2017 by Haas sat fourth after the first half of the 30-minute session behind ART team-mates Nyck de Vries and Alex Albon and Arden's Jake Dennis, but went fastest in a flurry of improvements inside the final three minutes.

Leclerc was then up on his benchmark time of 1m49.861s on another attempt at the very end of the session only to lose time in the final sector, but none of his nearest competitors were able to improve either.

His fellow Ferrari protege Antonio Fuoco - Leclerc's closest rival in the standings - was able to improve on his final lap, but only to 11th place.

With Leclerc now 28 points clear after gaining four points for pole, and 10 places ahead of Fuoco on the race-one grid, he stands a chance of wrapping up the title this weekend.

Albon - who is third in the championship, 44 points adrift - claimed second on the grid, 0.169 seconds behind Leclerc, while McLaren junior de Vries made it an all-ART top three.

Jack Aitken converted the best time in Thursday's practice session into fourth place on the grid for Arden.

Alex Palou enjoyed his and Campos Racing's best qualifying performance of the season, briefly holding pole position prior to Leclerc's effort and ending up in fifth.

Nirei Fukuzumi was sixth fastest in the fourth of the ART entries, but takes a three-place grid penalty for colliding with Leclerc in the last race at Monza.

That will drop the Honda protege behind Arjun Maini, Sandy Stuvik and Monza race one winner Dennis, who was the best-placed driver that improved at the chequered flag, lifting himself back into the top 10.

QUALIFYING RESULTS: