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Monza FR3.5: Red Bull man Carlos Sainz Jr bounces back with pole

Carlos Sainz Jr bounced back from a disappointing Formula Renault 3.5 season-opener at Monza to take a dominant pole position for race two on Sunday

The Spaniard, whose DAMS car had to be pushed off the grid in race one with an electrical problem when he was supposed to start from pole, moved to the top of the times with five minutes remaining.

From then on he never appeared under threat, finishing the session with a margin of seven tenths of a second over his nearest challenger.

That honour went to Lotus junior driver Marlon Stockinger, who bumped Jazeman Jaafar off the front row as the chequered flag came out.

Will Buller had to settle for fourth after making a mistake at the first chicane on his final lap, and behind him Pietro Fantin and Sauber Formula 1 reserve Sergey Sirotkin completed the third row.

Sirotkin and Fortec team-mate Oliver Rowland appeared to have recovered from a difficult Saturday as both were contenders for provisional pole during the first runs of the session.

However, neither appeared to get a particularly clear lap on their second set of tyres, with Rowland plummeting to 15th by the end of the session.

He will line up just behind race one winner and championship leader Will Stevens, who had a similarly tricky session and could only manage 14th on the grid.

Pos  Driver               Team     Time       Gap
 1.  Carlos Sainz Jr.     DAMS     1m32.684s
 2.  Marlon Stockinger    Lotus    1m33.410s  +0.726s
 3.  Jazeman Jaafar       ISR      1m33.557s  +0.873s
 4.  Will Buller          Arden    1m33.574s  +0.890s
 5.  Pietro Fantin        Draco    1m33.619s  +0.935s
 6.  Sergey Sirotkin      Fortec   1m33.620s  +0.936s
 7.  Roberto Merhi        Zeta     1m33.649s  +0.965s
 8.  Luca Ghiotto         Draco    1m33.747s  +1.063s
 9.  Pierre Gasly         Arden    1m33.765s  +1.081s
10.  Matias Laine         Strakka  1m33.839s  +1.155s
11.  Zoel Amberg          AVF      1m33.903s  +1.219s
12.  Nikolay Martsenko    Comtec   1m33.943s  +1.259s
13.  Norman Nato          DAMS     1m34.062s  +1.378s
14.  Will Stevens         Strakka  1m34.145s  +1.461s
15.  Oliver Rowland       Fortec   1m34.217s  +1.533s
16.  Beitske Visser       AVF      1m34.564s  +1.880s
17.  Meindert van Buuren  Pons     1m34.665s  +1.981s
18.  Roman Mavlanov       Zeta     1m34.708s  +2.024s
19.  Oliver Webb          Pons     1m34.714s  +2.030s
20.  Matthieu Vaxiviere   Lotus    1m34.725s  +2.041s
21.  Marco Sorensen       Tech 1   1m34.489s  +1.805s*

* Five-place grid penalty

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