Spielberg FR3.5: Sorensen beats Magnussen to race-one pole

The two Danes were locked in combat for the top spot from the moment they took to the track for their second runs.

Both had several turns at the top as they improved on almost every lap they completed, which edged them away from the threat of those behind.

The session appeared to be building to a fantastic finish, with Magnussen (second at the time) just getting across the line before the chequered flag, and Sorensen looking set to improve his benchmark on his final lap.

Sorensen missed out on bettering his pole time by less than a tenth of a second, and his Lotus team then had to watch on as Magnussen set a personal best first sector.

But the McLaren junior's lap fell away in the middle sector, and he aborted the run to return to the pits.

Behind the Danish front row, Nigel Melker was best of the rest, while title outsider Will Stevens boosted his chances of making up ground by slotting onto the second row in the closing moments.

Early pacesetter Arthur Pic eventually took fifth place, just ahead of championship leader Stoffel Vandoorne and Red Bull junior Antonio Felix da Costa.

Da Costa appeared to have a frustrating session, only briefly getting as high as third in the order before he was quickly shuffled back.


Pos Driver                  Team              Time      Gap      Laps
 1. Marco Sorensen          Lotus             1m15.976s           16
 2. Kevin Magnussen         DAMS              1m16.048s  +0.072s  18
 3. Nigel Melker            Tech 1            1m16.294s  +0.318s  17
 4. Will Stevens            P1/Strakka        1m16.363s  +0.387s  17
 5. Arthur Pic              AV                1m16.377s  +0.401s  16
 6. Stoffel Vandoorne       Fortec            1m16.527s  +0.551s  18
 7. Antonio Felix da Costa  Arden Caterham    1m16.616s  +0.640s  18
 8. Nikolay Martsenko       Pons              1m16.759s  +0.783s  17
 9. Norman Nato             DAMS              1m16.764s  +0.788s  17
10. Marlon Stockinger       Lotus             1m16.777s  +0.801s  16
11. Sergey Sirotkin         ISR               1m16.782s  +0.806s  15
12. Will Buller             Zeta Corse        1m16.854s  +0.878s  15
13. Carlos Huertas          Carlin            1m16.903s  +0.927s  17
14. Nico Muller             Draco             1m16.904s  +0.928s  16
15. Yann Cunha              AV                1m16.919s  +0.943s  16
16. Christopher Zanella     ISR               1m17.069s  +1.093s  16
17. Oliver Webb             Fortec            1m17.080s  +1.104s  18
18. Pietro Fantin           Arden Caterham    1m17.093s  +1.117s  17
19. Andre Negrao            Draco             1m17.160s  +1.184s  17
20. Zoel Amberg             Pons              1m17.339s  +1.363s  17
21. Mikhail Aleshin         Tech 1            1m17.458s  +1.482s  17
22. Daniil Move             Comtec            1m17.769s  +1.793s  18
23. Riccardo Agostini       Zeta Corse        1m17.886s  +1.910s  16
24. Lucas Foresti           Comtec            1m17.891s  +1.915s  17
25. Matias Laine            P1/Strakka        1m18.262s  +2.286s  17
26. Jazeman Jaafar          Carlin            1m19.162s  +3.186s  6