Melker claims pole for first GP3 race

On a track that was damp but drying after overnight rain, Melker came out on top after a manic scramble at the end of the session where no fewer than 11 drivers took turns on the top spot during the final five minutes.

The RSC Mucke Motorsport driver's pole lap of 1m52.602s left him 0.329 seconds clear of Jenzer's Pal Verhaug, who was the last driver to start his final flying lap and therefore had the benefit of both the optimum conditions and a relatively clear track to vault from the back half of the grid up to second.

Robert Wickens will start from third alongside fellow ex-A1GP driver and Status team-mate Daniel Morad.

"The last five minutes was tough," Wickens said. "I was surprised how slowly the track dried out - for most of the session it was fairly constant, then it suddenly picked up by about four seconds.

With the final outcome having been determined to a large extent by luck and timing, several of the session's early pace-setters will go into the race with some work to do. ART's Esteban Gutierrez led the field on no less than five separate occasions but was dropped back to seventh in the late scramble, with James Jakes and Dean Smith just ahead of him.

Jean-Eric Vergne was another to be bumped backwards right at the end and will start from eighth ahead of Renger van der Zande, while Daniel Juncadella found himself sinking from the front row back to 15th.

The biggest disappointments were reserved for Adrian Quaife-Hobbs and Alexander Rossi, both of whom were caught out by the slippery conditions and skidded off the circuit early in the session, leaving them 27th and 28th respectively. Victor Ghirelli's similar trip into the barriers left him in 29th alongside Mirko Bortolotti, who was unable to complete a lap due to an aparent mechanical problem.

Pos  Driver                Team       Time       Gap
 1.  Nigel Melker          RSC Mucke  1m52.602s
 2.  Pal Varhaug           Jenzer     1m52.931s  + 0.329s
 3.  Robert Wickens        Status     1m52.974s  + 0.372s
 4.  Daniel Morad          Status     1m53.311s  + 0.709s
 5.  James Jakes           Manor      1m53.440s  + 0.838s
 6.  Dean Smith            Carlin     1m53.600s  + 0.998s
 7.  Esteban Gutierrez     ART        1m53.603s  + 1.001s
 8.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Tech 1     1m53.765s  + 1.163s
 9.  Renger van der Zande  RSC Mucke  1m53.914s  + 1.312s
10.  Simon Trummer         Jenzer     1m53.983s  + 1.381s
11.  Felipe Guimaraes      Addax      1m54.159s  + 1.557s
12.  Josef Newgarden       Carlin     1m54.329s  + 1.727s
13.  Rio Haryanto          Manor      1m54.331s  + 1.729s
14.  Lucas Foresti         Carlin     1m54.477s  + 1.875s
15.  Daniel Juncadella     Tech 1     1m54.495s  + 1.893s
16.  Michael Christensen   MW Arden   1m54.658s  + 2.056s
17.  Miki Monras           MW Arden   1m54.666s  + 2.064s
18.  Pedro Nunes           ART        1m54.686s  + 2.084s
19.  Pablo Sanchez Lopez   Addax      1m54.691s  + 2.089s
20.  Nigel Muller          Jenzer     1m54.726s  + 2.124s
21.  Leonardo Cordeiro     MW Arden   1m54.758s  + 2.156s
22.  Oliver Oakes          Atech CRS  1m54.817s  + 2.215s
23.  Doru Sechelariu       Tech 1     1m55.069s  + 2.467s
24.  Patrick Reiterer      Atech CRS  1m55.394s  + 2.792s
25.  Tobias Hegewald       RSC Mucke  1m55.643s  + 3.041s
26.  Ivan Lukashevich      Status     1m55.927s  + 3.325s
27.  Adrian Quaife-Hobbs   Manor      1m57.082s  + 4.480s
28.  Alexander Rossi       ART        2m00.622s  + 8.020s
29.  Vittorio Ghirelli     Atech CRS  2m01.311s  + 8.709s
30.  Mirko Bortolotti      Addax