Salaquarda takes home FR3.5 pole

Salaquarda gave a hint of his superiority with a dominant display during Friday's final free practice, and the 26-year-old delivered once more to set a pole margin almost half a second clear of ISR team-mate Esteban Guerrieri.

A late effort by Tech 1 Racing's Red Bull Formula 1 reserve driver Brendon Hartley propelled the Kiwi up into a brief second position, having languished well down the order with only three minutes of the half hour session remaining.

Seconds before the session was red-flagged due to an incident involving Sergio Canamasas, Guerrieri responded to bump Hartley down to third. Hartley will be joined on the second row of this afternoon's race by Keisuke Kunimoto, enjoying by far his strongest Formula Renault 3.5 showing with Epsilon Euskadi.

"I had traffic on my first lap, but on my second run the brakes were up to temperature, the tyres were in good condition, so I thought 'okay, I'll push,'" said Salaquarda. "When I saw on a pit board that someone had a done a lap in the '42s, I couldn't believe it, when I realised it was me it was really great. Actually, I thought the timing must be broken.

"It's great to have my first pole in formula cars at home in front of my family and the Czech people. Our tyre degradation is quite good for the race, and starting with Esteban alongside me, we just need to be smart."

ISR team boss, and Filip's father, Igor Salaquarda was equally delighted with the result in his team's debut year in the category.

"We had a brake failure in a pre-season test at Jerez, and did quite heavy damage," he said. "We weren't then able to go to the next test at Magny-Cours, so we decided to come here for some private running. Unfortunately, we had a lot of engine problems so weren't able to do that many laps, but anyway, Filip knows the track and we know some little tricks here from experience in other championships."

Spa winner Guerrieri, who stood down to make way for GP3 driver Alexander Rossi in the most recent meeting in Monaco, stressed the importance of a sensible approach to Turn 1.

"At the start the thing is not to be stupid, we need to try and make a gap in the first few laps," said Guerrieri. "On my first lap I had traffic and had to back off, and then on the second run I was really surprised because I had left a big gap to a Carlin car, but then caught him in the last corner. Congratulations to the team and Filip, though, they did an amazing job."

With the session abandoned 1m12s prematurely owing to the red flag caused by Canamasas, several leading runners were unable to complete their final laps.

Championship leader Mikhail Aleshi, who will start from fifth, will not be too upset to see his closest rival in the points fight, Monaco victor Daniel Ricciardo, down in 14th.

The early finish was also bad news for Fortec's pairing of Motorland winner Sten Pentus and Jon Lancaster. Both men took to the track with less than half of the 30 minute session remaining, and wound up in ninth and 12th respectively.

                                                 
Pos  Driver             Team             Time       Gap
 1.  Filip Salaquarda   ISR              1m42.685s
 2.  Esteban Guerrieri  ISR              1m43.131s  + 0.446s
 3.  Brendon Hartley    Tech 1           1m43.625s  + 0.940s
 4.  Keisuke Kunimoto   Epsilon Euskadi  1m43.633s  + 0.948s
 5.  Mikhail Aleshin    Carlin           1m43.636s  + 0.951s
 6.  Julian Leal        Draco            1m43.690s  + 1.005s
 7.  Nathanael Berthon  Draco            1m43.853s  + 1.168s
 8.  Jan Charouz        P1               1m43.885s  + 1.200s
 9.  Sten Pentus        Fortec           1m44.018s  + 1.333s
10.  Anton Nebylitskiy  KMP              1m44.037s  + 1.352s
11.  Greg Mansell       Comtec           1m44.221s  + 1.536s
12.  Jon Lancaster      Fortec           1m44.240s  + 1.555s
13.  Victor Garcia      KMP              1m44.262s  + 1.577s
14.  Daniel Ricciardo   Tech 1           1m44.273s  + 1.588s
15.  Daniil Move        Junior Lotus     1m44.293s  + 1.608s
16.  Nelson Panciatici  Junior Lotus     1m44.383s  + 1.698s
17.  Stefano Coletti    Comtec           1m44.518s  + 1.833s
18.  Walter Grubmuller  P1               1m44.598s  + 1.913s
19.  Daniel Zampieri    Pons             1m44.708s  + 2.023s
20.  Albert Costa       Epsilon Euskadi  1m44.762s  + 2.077s
21.  Bruno Mendez       FHV Interwetten  1m44.881s  + 2.196s
22.  Federico Leo       Pons             1m45.013s  + 2.328s
23.  Sergio Canamasas   FHV Interwetten  1m45.118s  + 2.433s
24.  Jake Rosenzweig    Carlin           1m45.504s  + 2.819s