Hungaroring FR3.5: Olvier Rowland denies rookie Egor Orudzhev pole

The result follows the Fortec racer's pole at the preceding meeting at Spa-Francorchamps a fortnight ago.

The Briton's two closest pursuers in the title race, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Jazeman Jaafar, will also be in contention for victory in Saturday afternoon's race, and will head the second row of the grid.

Both were overshadowed by the surprise of qualifying, Arden racer Egor Orudzhev.

The SMP-backed Russian was a consistent presence towards the top of the timing screens, and held provisional pole with just a minute of the half-hour session remaining.

Rowland's late effort of 1m28.897s would deny Orudzhev a maiden pole position by 0.210 seconds.

GP2 race-winner Tom Dillmann recovered from a lowly 16th mid-way through the session to claim fifth for Carlin, ahead of Manor Formula 1 driver Roberto Merhi.

The Spaniard was a dominant victor in the wet for Zeta Corse in Hungary last year, but this top-six starting position is the first real sign of progress for the Merhi/Pons combination in 2015.

Gustav Malja's Strakka car stopped at Turn 13 early in the session and the Swede is set to start from last.

Meindert van Buuren, whose regular seat at Lotus was taken by European Formula 3 driver Alexander Albon on Friday, returned and claimed 14th.

QUALIFYING RESULTS: