Aragon FR3.5: Oliver Rowland claims maiden pole position

Fortec driver Rowland had narrowly missed out on pole position for race one, setting a time just 0.018s slower than Carlos Sainz Jr and claiming that he made a mistake on that lap that cost him top spot.

While the Briton was the last car to take the chequered flag in Saturday's session, he was the first on this occasion, but his final time of 1m39.885s was good enough that none of his challengers could beat it as he toured back to the pits.

Rowland's lap deposed Pietro Fantin from first place, after the Brazilian had pipped race one podium finisher Nikolay Martsenko just one minute before that.

The Russian had moved to the top as the first driver to start setting flying laps on his second set of tyres, but by the end of the session he had dropped to 12th.

Rowland's 2013 Formula Renault Eurocup rival Pierre Gasly jumped up to third with his final lap of the session, pushing Will Stevens back down to fourth.

The session still marked a big improvement for Stevens after his Strakka team's difficulties with getting the most out of new tyres had left him down in 15th on the grid for race one.

The top five was completed by championship leader Sainz, who had taken the three previous pole positions this season.

The Spaniard, who admitted after his race one victory that he did not believe Saturday's running was an accurate depiction of the competitive order, was never quite in the thick of the fight for pole, and ended the session half a second adrift of Rowland.

Pos Driver                Team           Time       Gap     Laps
 1. Oliver Rowland        Fortec         1n39.885s           13
 2. Pietro Fantin         Draco          1n40.054s  +0.169s  14
 3. Pierre Gasly          Arden          1n40.357s  +0.472s  13
 4. Will Stevens          Strakka        1n40.375s  +0.490s  13
 5. Carlos Sainz Jr.      DAMS           1n40.457s  +0.572s  14
 6. Jazeman Jaafar        ISR            1n40.461s  +0.576s  13
 7. Sergey Sirotkin       Fortec         1n40.493s  +0.608s  13
 8. Luca Ghiotto          Draco          1n40.573s  +0.688s  12
 9. Marco Sorensen        Tech 1         1n40.601s  +0.716s  13
10. Zoel Amberg           AVF            1n40.606s  +0.721s  13
11. Matthieu Vaxiviere    Lotus          1n40.618s  +0.733s  13
12. Nikolay Martsenko     Comtec         1n40.630s  +0.745s  13
13. William Buller        Arden          1n40.643s  +0.758s  13
14. Beitske Visser        AVF            1n40.749s  +0.864s  13
15. Roberto Merhi         Zeta Corse     1n40.796s  +0.911s  10
16. Marlon Stockinger     Lotus          1n40.852s  +0.967s  14
17. Norman Nato           DAMS           1n40.977s  +1.092s  14
18. Oliver Webb           Pons           1n40.994s  +1.109s  13
19. Matias Laine          Strakka        1n41.015s  +1.130s  14
20. Meindert van Buuren   Pons           1n41.118s  +1.233s  14
21. Roman Mavlanov        Zeta Corse     1n41.888s  +2.003s  11