Ramon Pineiro beats Mirko Bortolotti to Formula 2 pole in Austria
Spanish teenager Ramon Pineiro produced a great qualifying effort at Spielberg to snatch pole position for Saturday's F2 race
Championship leader Mirko Bortolotti had set the pace throughout free practice, but he was denied pole by a fine effort of 1m21.946s in the final minutes of the session.
Bortolotti will line up alongside him on the front row, while his main championship rival, Christopher Zanella, will start third.
"It's very close," said Bortolotti. "I'm very happy to be on the front row, even if it's second. The session was quite chaotic. On my fastest lap I had to pass three cars, but from second I'm looking forward to the race."
Romanian Mihai Marinescu continued his good weekend performance with fourth, while Alex Brundle lines up fifth.
It was a good first session for F2 newcomer Luciano Bacheta, with the Brit setting an impressive sixth fastest time. Fellow new boy Rene Binder will start 15th.
The session was briefly red-flagged with 15 minutes to go after German Tobias Hegewald stopped on track. But his car was soon towed away and the action resumed.
Pos Driver Time Gap 1. Ramon Pineiro 1m21.946s 2. Mirko Bortolotti 1m22.080s + 0.134s 3. Christopher Zanella 1m22.158s + 0.212s 4. Mihai Marinescu 1m22.518s + 0.572s 5. Alex Brundle 1m22.602s + 0.656s 6. Miki Monras 1m22.748s + 0.802s 7. Luciano Bacheta 1m22.781s + 0.835s 8. Mikkel Mac 1m22.824s + 0.878s 9. Benjamin Lariche 1m22.923s + 0.977s 10. Julian Theobald 1m22.950s + 1.004s 11. Kelvin Snoeks 1m22.995s + 1.049s 12. Jack Clarke 1m23.119s + 1.173s 13. Thiemo Storz 1m23.240s + 1.294s 14. Johannes Theobald 1m23.263s + 1.317s 15. Rene Binder 1m23.301s + 1.355s 16. Maxim Snegirev 1m23.341s + 1.395s 17. Parthiva Sureshwaren 1m23.346s + 1.400s 18. Armaan Ebrahim 1m23.483s + 1.537s 19. James Cole 1m23.518s + 1.572s 20. Sunghak Mun 1m23.594s + 1.648s 21. Tobias Hegewald 1m24.485s + 2.539s 22. Plamen Kralev 1m24.764s + 2.818s
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