Sochi GP3: Dean Stoneman takes pole position on Koiranen GP return

Stoneman has switched from the absent Manor team, which failed to make the trip to Sochi due to commercial reasons, back to Koiranen GP this weekend.

Still wearing his Marussia-branded overalls in tribute to the team's injured Formula 1 driver Jules Bianchi, Stoneman led the way for the majority of the 30-minute session.

After topping the first runs with a 1m52.501s laptime, Stoneman set a stunning 1m51.715s on his second set of new tyres.

The closest anyone came was the ART trio of Alex Fontana, Marvin Kirchhofer and Dino Zamparelli, who all lapped within 0.084s of each other. Stoneman's advantage over Fontana was 0.489s.

Koiranen's Jimmy Eriksson will start fifth, 0.6s off the pole time of his new team-mate, while title contender Richie Stanaway was sixth fastest, 0.7s off the pace.

But the Kiwi has lost his grid position because he failed to stop at the FIA weight check and the Status team worked on the car before it was presented to the FIA garage. He will now have to start from the pitlane.

Stanaway needs to overturn a 50-point deficit to points leader Alex Lynn over the next four races to wrest the title away. The maximum score per weekend is 48, so Lynn can now easily wrap up the title this weekend ahead of the Abu Dhabi finale.

Carlin driver Lynn was on target to take pole on his final lap, but a huge lock-up at Turn 13 ruined his chances having set a purple first sector and personal-best second sector. He will start eighth, behind Kevin Ceccon.

Patric Niederhauser and Emil Bernstorff rounded out the top 10.