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Moscow FR3.5: Sauber F1 protege Sergey Sirotkin takes home pole

Sergey Sirotkin took pole position for the opening Formula Renault 3.5 race of his home event at Moscow Raceway on Saturday morning

The Sauber Formula 1 test driver, who also topped Friday's free practice running, was one of the first drivers to improve when the field started its second runs, moving fastest with the first sub-1m21s lap of the weekend.

Low track temperatures meant that there was not much time remaining once the drivers had their new tyres up to speed, and with fewer improvements than usual Sirotkin's benchmark did not come under much threat.

Roberto Merhi appeared to have sealed second on the grid just before the chequered flag came out, but he was pipped by one of the last cars across the line as 2013 Formula Renault Eurocup champion Pierre Gasly moved onto the front row.

Away from the action at the front, the big shock of qualifying was the difficulties of championship leader Carlos Sainz Jr and his DAMS team - which had warned him prior to this weekend that this would be one of its toughest weekends of the year.

The French cars were never in the mix at the front, and as the session was drawing to a close, Sainz was set to start on the back row, just behind his team-mate and Monaco race winner Norman Nato.

The Spaniard - who leads Gasly by 43 points coming into this weekend - salvaged 16th with his final lap, relegating Nato to the back row in 19th.

Pos  Driver               Team     Time       Gap
 1.  Sergey Sirotkin      Fortec   1m20.992s
 2.  Pierre Gasly         Arden    1m21.211s  +0.219s
 3.  Roberto Merhi        Zeta     1m21.223s  +0.231s
 4.  Zoel Amberg          AVF      1m21.269s  +0.277s
 5.  Pietro Fantin        Draco    1m21.304s  +0.312s
 6.  Oliver Rowland       Fortec   1m21.372s  +0.380s
 7.  Jazeman Jaafar       ISR      1m21.487s  +0.495s
 8.  Oscar Tunjo          Pons     1m21.510s  +0.518s
 9.  Will Stevens         Strakka  1m21.519s  +0.527s
10.  Richie Stanaway      Lotus    1m21.709s  +0.717s
11.  Marlon Stockinger    Lotus    1m21.761s  +0.769s
12.  Matias Laine         Strakka  1m21.779s  +0.787s
13.  Will Buller          Arden    1m21.834s  +0.842s
14.  Beitske Visser       AVF      1m21.863s  +0.871s
15.  Meindert van Buuren  Pons     1m21.888s  +0.896s
16.  Carlos Sainz Jr      DAMS     1m21.895s  +0.903s
17.  Luca Ghiotto         Draco    1m21.992s  +1.000s
18.  Marco Sørensen       Tech 1   1m22.088s  +1.096s
19.  Norman Nato          DAMS     1m22.104s  +1.112s
20.  Roman Mavlanov       Zeta     1m22.276s  +1.284s

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