Leimer takes IFM pole at Pau

The Swiss driver, who finished runner-up in last year's championship, set an impressive 1m11.736s benchmark and only Josef Kral could get within seven tenths of it.

"Today was quite hard, I only really had one lap to qualify with because all the others were affected by yellow flags," said Leimer. "It's frustrating because I know I could have gone another half a second faster if I could have really pushed."

Those hoping to unseat Leimer from the top spot with their last laps of the session were denied the opportunity when Alessandro Kouzkin crashed and brought out the red flags with one minute remaining.

Kral will start alongside Leimer on the front row, with Vladimir Arabadzhiev and reigning Formula Renault Italy champion Pal Varhaug will share the second row.

Jonathan Kennard qualified fifth following his last minute call up to Team JVA, while fellow series newcomer Duncan Tappy will start 15th.

Earl Bamber's hopes of a strong debut were dashed when he damaged his rear suspension on one of Pau's brutal kerbs and the New Zealander was a spectator for most of the session, completing just four laps.

Pos Driver                  Team        Time          Gap
 1. Fabio Leimer            Jenzer      1m11.736s
 2. Josef Kral              JD          1m12.122s  +0.386
 3. Vladimir Arabadzhiev    JD          1m12.474s  +0.738
 4. Pal Varhaug             Jenzer      1m12.506s  +0.770
 5. Jonathan Kennard        JVA         1m12.559s  +0.823
 6. Alessandro Kouzkin      Cram        1m12.647s  +0.911
 7. Patrick Reiterer        Iris        1m12.653s  +0.917
 8. Alexander Rossi         Hitech      1m12.748s  +1.012
 9. Sergey Afanasiev        JD          1m12.813s  +1.077
10. Marcello Puglisi        ADM         1m12.861s  +1.125
11. Kasper Andersen         Hitech      1m12.966s  +1.230
12. Harald Schlegelmilch    Cram        1m13.060s  +1.324
13. Frankie Provenzano      Trident     1m13.354s  +1.618
14. Dennis Retera           AR          1m13.924s  +2.188
15. Duncan Tappy            JVA         1m13.944s  +2.208
16. Kelvin Snoeks           AR          1m14.296s  +2.560
17. Simon Trummer           Iris        1m15.168s  +3.432
18. Earl Bamber             ADM         1m17.794s  +6.058