Monza Formula V8 3.5: Roy Nissany takes pole, Dillmann only ninth

Lotus racer Roy Nissany claimed his second Formula V8 3.5 pole position of the season at Monza.

The Silverstone double winner recorded a time of 1m33.646s to demote Arden's Egor Orudzhev from provisional pole in the final minute of the half hour session.

In his strongest qualifying effort of the season, Fortec's Pietro Fittipaldi staged an impressive late bid for pole, but on his final lap fell 0.077s short of Nissany's benchmark.

The second Charouz-run Lotus entry of Rene Binder will head the second row of the grid for this afternoon's opening race of the weekend.

"Both Roy and I left it quite late to show our hand in qualifying," said Binder. "I have to say I didn't quite warm my tyres up enough on my first run, but after our performance in the warm in second practice on Friday afternoon I was expecting this."

"In qualifying we were on medium downforce, but I expect some drivers to use low in the race; people at the back taking a chance and also some guys at the front."

Leading rookie in the drivers' standings Louis Deletraz took fourth, ahead of Orudzhev and, initially, Will Buller

On his his maiden FV8 3.5 appearance of the year, Buller produced an assured showing for RP Motorsport. However, the Super Formula racer and Formula Renault 3.5 podium finisher, along with Teo Martin runner Yu Kanamaru, was penalised for a yellow flag infringement.

Buller therefore dropped from sixth to 10th, while Kanamaru remained in 12th place.

Aurelien Panis had finished just 0.002s behind Buller, but was promoted to sixth after the Northern Irishman's penalty.

Championship leader Tom Dillmann had languished in eighth place after his first run, and continued to struggle on his second set of tyres and ended the session in ninth.

The Frenchman's compatriot Matthieu Vaxiviere suffered an accident at the second Lesmo in the final stages of qualifying.

Vaxiviere concluded the morning in seventh, at the wheel of the lone SMP Racing entry at Monza this weekend. The Red Bull Ring and Spa winner's regular team-mate Matevos Isaakyan is competing in GP3 at Sepang.

QUALIFYING TIMES