Vasiliauskas gets first pole at Imola

The 19-year-old Lithuanian lies eighth in the championship having already scored three podiums this season.

He triumphed in a frenetic session, during which several drivers held the top spot, setting his best time with six minutes remaining.

Home driver Mirko Bortolotti had set the pace throughout the first 10 minutes, until he was knocked off the top spot by countryman Nicola de Marco.

But the Italian sweep of the front row was broken in the last five minutes by a surge of quick laps.

Wickens went second fastest and then slid off the circuit twice on his next lap, and was eventually pushed down to fourth as Bortolotti and Aleshin improved again at the end.

Philipp Eng briefly held pole before Vasiliauskas's effort, but he ended up fifth, ahead of championship leader Andy Soucek, Sebastian Hohenthal and German Sanchez, who scored his best grid spot of the season.

Julien Jousse and Edoardo Piscopo completed the top 10, with de Marco sliding from first to 11th in the last 10 minutes.

Pos Driver                          Time          Gap
 1. Kazim Vasiliauskas              1m38.468s
 2. Mirko Bortolotti                1m38.781s  +0.313
 3. Mikhail Aleshin                 1m38.869s  +0.401
 4. Robert Wickens                  1m38.901s  +0.433
 5. Philipp Eng                     1m39.006s  +0.538
 6. Andy Soucek                     1m39.328s  +0.860
 7. Sebastian Hohenthal             1m39.450s  +0.982
 8. German Sanchez                  1m39.668s  +1.200
 9. Julien Jousse                   1m39.687s  +1.219
10. Edoardo Piscopo                 1m39.731s  +1.263
11. Nicola De Marco                 1m39.874s  +1.406
12. Tobias Hegewald                 1m39.934s  +1.466
13. Natacha Gachnang                1m39.939s  +1.471
14. Milos Pavlovic                  1m40.068s  +1.600
15. Carlos Iaconelli                1m40.244s  +1.776
16. Alex Brundle                    1m40.249s  +1.781
17. Tom Gladdis                     1m40.281s  +1.813
18. Henri Karjalainen               1m40.286s  +1.818
19. Jolyon Palmer                   1m40.436s  +1.968
20. Jason Moore                     1m40.568s  +2.100
21. Jack Clarke                     1m40.733s  +2.265
22. Ollie Hancock                   1m40.771s  +2.303
23. Jens Hoing                      1m40.990s  +2.522
24. Pietro Gandolfi                 1m41.202s  +2.734
25. Armaan Ebrahim                  no time