Stoneman dominates Zolder qualifying
Dean Stoneman took his second Formula 2 pole position of the season by dominating this afternoon's qualifying session at Zolder
The Briton, who has a 100 per cent winning record from pole position following his triumph in Marrakech last month, sat above his rivals throughout the half-hour session.
Before the habitual mid-session change to a new set of tyres, Stoneman was as much as seven tenths clear of the field.
The gap was reduced to just over one tenth by local driver Benjamin Bailly, before Stoneman unleashed the fastest lap of the week so far to cement his top spot by quarter of a second.
Bailly was knocked off the front row by a late effort from Kazim Vasiliauskas, whose previous best was just 0.001s slower than the Belgian.
Armaan Ebrahim will join Bailly on row two for Saturday's race after his strongest qualifying showing of the year.
Bailly, who is from just 50km south of the Zolder but is racing at his home circuit for the first time, said: "I feel great, to get my best result here at Zolder feels really good. I would prefer to be in first or second, but third is not bad.
"I have driven only one time here with a road car. It was good to have the test on Tuesday, there's a lot of grip on the track and it's really good fun."
Jolyon Palmer and Nicola de Marco will share the third row, ahead of Ivan Samarin in a season's best seventh.
Title contender Philipp Eng will be disappointed with eighth - especially after topping the pre-event test here on Tuesday - as will Will Bratt, Jack Clarke and Sergei Afanasiev from ninth through 11th.
Pos Driver Time Gap 1. Dean Stoneman 1m23.200s 2. Kazim Vasiliauskas 1m23.443s + 0.243s 3. Benjamin Bailly 1m23.538s + 0.338s 4. Armaan Ebrahim 1m23.718s + 0.518s 5. Jolyon Palmer 1m23.829s + 0.629s 6. Nicola de Marco 1m23.914s + 0.714s 7. Ivan Samarin 1m24.048s + 0.848s 8. Philipp Eng 1m24.135s + 0.935s 9. Will Bratt 1m24.196s + 0.996s 10. Jack Clarke 1m24.207s + 1.007s 11. Sergei Afanasiev 1m24.225s + 1.025s 12. Mihai Marinescu 1m24.407s + 1.207s 13. Kelvin Snoeks 1m24.562s + 1.362s 14. Paul Rees 1m24.573s + 1.373s 15. Natalia Kowalska 1m24.730s + 1.530s 16. Benjamin Lariche 1m24.884s + 1.684s 17. Ricardo Teixeira 1m25.026s + 1.826s 18. Parthiva Sureshwaren 1m25.062s + 1.862s 19. Plamen Kralev 1m25.990s + 2.790s
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