Hegewald secures Spa F2 pole

The German had been quickest in both free practice sessions, and maintained his superiority in qualifying, setting a time of 2m08.890s just after the session was restarted following an early red flag to retrieve Sebastian Hohenthal's car, and staying unbeaten thereafter.

"I'm really happy with today," Hegewald said. "I tried my best to do a good lap and I didn't make any mistakes, so it has been a good day for me.

"After the red flag I was worried that I had wasted my new tyres, and I tried to save them as best as I could on the way back to the pits. After the red though I think the track was in perfect condition."

Andy Soucek came closest to deposing Hegewald, but missed out by 0.090 seconds and had to settle for the outside of the front row.

Valencia winner Robert Wickens took third, and is well-placed to make up for his Brno disasters as current points leader Mirko Bortolotti struggled to 22nd on the grid.

"After the weekend I had in Brno I'm just glad to be back in a press conference," he said. "I got caught out a little by the red flag, and then my next lap had the potential to be better until I caught traffic, so I'm a little disappointed.

"However a top three is still good for the race tomorrow, and I'll be treating the race as if it were my last - points are so critical, and in the end it could be one point that decides the champion. I'm hoping to pounce on this opportunity to score, especially as some of my championship opponents are starting down the grid."

Mikhail Aleshin, who is currently third in the standings behind Bortolotti and Wickens, failed to take part in qualifying as his car had been badly damaged in practice, so will start last.

Julien Jousse held pole early on before being pushed back to fourth, ahead of Kazim Vasiliauskas and Henry Surtees.

Pos  Driver              Time       Gap
 1.  Tobias Hegewald     2m08.890s
 2.  Andy Soucek         2m08.981s  + 0.091s
 3.  Robert Wickens      2m09.265s  + 0.375s
 4.  Julien Jousse       2m09.458s  + 0.568s
 5.  Kazim Vasiliauskas  2m09.813s  + 0.923s
 6.  Henry Surtees       2m10.325s  + 1.435s
 7.  Milos Pavlovic      2m10.419s  + 1.529s
 8.  Alex Brundle        2m10.487s  + 1.597s
 9.  Jolyon Palmer       2m10.521s  + 1.631s
10.  Philipp Eng         2m10.754s  + 1.864s
11.  Carlos Iaconelli    2m10.854s  + 1.964s
12.  Jack Clarke         2m11.119s  + 2.229s
13.  Henri Karjalainen   2m11.135s  + 2.245s
14.  German Sanchez      2m11.137s  + 2.247s
15.  Tom Gladdis         2m11.362s  + 2.472s
16.  Armaan Ebrahim      2m11.485s  + 2.595s
17.  Jason Moore         2m11.908s  + 3.018s
18.  Jens Hoing          2m12.010s  + 3.120s
19.  Edoardo Piscopo     2m12.130s  + 3.240s
20.  Natacha Gachnang    2m12.193s  + 3.303s
21.  Sebastian Hohental  2m12.369s  + 3.479s
22.  Mirko Bortolotti    2m12.836s  + 3.946s
23.  Pietro Gandolfi     2m13.804s  + 4.914s
24.  Nicola de Marco
25.  Mikhail Aleshin