Hamilton on pole for season finale

The ASM driver had to give best to the Manor Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes of Lucas di Grassi for much of the session. But with six minutes remaining, Hamilton scalped a couple of tenths from di Grassi's time to ensure he will have the best possible chance of ending his title-winning year on a high.

Few drivers managed to improve their times in the closing minutes and di Grassi ended the session as the only man within half a second of Hamilton's pace in second spot.

Manor had started the session strongly, with both di Grassi and McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner Paul di Resta topping the timesheets early on. But while the Brazilian held on to a front-row slot, the Scot dropped back down the order to seventh.

Rookie Guillaume Moreau again outshone his Signature teammates Loic Duval and James Rossiter to claim an excellent third on the grid - and top Opel-powered car - while Maximilian Gotz bounced back from a practice session off to qualify fourth on his debut as replacement for A1 GP-bound Adrian Sutil at ASM.

Giedo van der Garde ended the session in fifth, a tenth ahead of di Resta, while Sebastian Vettel, Atila Abreu, Duval and Rossiter rounded off the top 10.

The qualifying session for tomorrow's opening race takes place tomorrow morning.

Pos  Driver             Team                    Time      Laps
 1.  Lewis Hamilton     ASM F3                  1:34.132   14
 2.  Lucas di Grassi    Manor Motorsport        +  0.228   14
 3.  Guillaume Moreau   Signature               +  0.456   16
 4.  Maximilian GÃ¶tz    ASM F3                  +  0.578   14
 5.  G. van der Garde   Team Rosberg            +  0.683   14
 6.  Paul di Resta      Manor Motorsport        +  0.768   12
 7.  Sebastian Vettel   ASL Mucke Motorsport    +  0.853   12
 8.  Atila Abreu        ASL Mucke Motorsport    +  0.995   16
 9.  Loic Duval         Signature-Plus          +  1.023   15
10.  James Rossiter     Signature-Plus          +  1.031   17
11.  Franck Perera      Prema Powerteam         +  1.050   14
12.  Hannes Neuhauser   HBR Motorsport          +  1.244   16
13.  Marco Bonanomi     Prema Powerteam         +  1.257   17
14.  Ben Clucas         Team Midland Euroseries +  1.322   16
15.  Alejandro Nunez    HBR Motorsport          +  1.407   14
16.  Esteban Guerrieri  Team Midland Euroseries +  1.509   18
17.  Filip Salaquarda   Team I.S.R.18.          +  1.522   16
18.  Greg Franchi       Prema Powerteam         +  1.547   16
19.  Thomas Holzer      AM-Holzer Rennsport     +  2.173   15
20.  Fabio Carbone      Signature               +  2.537   11
21.  Kohei Hirate       Team Rosberg            +  2.600   15

All Timing Unofficial

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Hamilton on pole for season finale

Formula Three Euroseries champion Lewis Hamilton will start Sunday's final race of the year from pole position, after he grabbed the top spot in a hard-fought first qualifying session

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