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Ricciardo takes crucial pole

Daniel Ricciardo claimed his eighth Formula Renault 3.5 pole position of the season in a dramatic qualifying session at Barcelona

The 2009 British Formula 3 champion and his fellow title contenders, Mikhail Aleshin and Esteban Guerrieri, occupied the top three positions throughout.

Just three minutes before the chequered flag, Ricciardo spun backwards into the gravel at the, Turn 4, Repsol corner. The Australian, holding provisional pole at the time, was subsequently stripped of his fastest lap for bringing out the red flags.

As the session restarted, Ricciardo was forced to watch the remaining action from the sidelines as his Tech 1 Racing machine was removed from the gravel. But neither Aleshin, who locked up his front tyres into SEAT corner, nor Guerrieri, who found traffic, were able to improve on their earlier efforts.

Ricciardo's second fastest lap of 1m34.217s thus secured the Red Bull Formula 1 reserve driver pole for this afternoon's low aero race. Championship leader Aleshin (Carlin) finished just a tenth adrift, and will start from the outside of the front row.

Guerrieri, third in the standings some 16 points behind Aleshin, will lead the second row for ISR, ahead of Draco's promising French rookie Nathanael Berthon.

P1 Motorsport's Jan Charouz made a strong return to the championship after being forced to miss the last meeting at Silverstone through injury. The Czech qualified in sixth ahead of his compatriot Filip Salaquarda (ISR).

Stuck in England on Red Bull Formula 1 simulator duties on Friday, Jean-Eric Vergne put in an impressive showing on his first taste of track action this weekend to qualify eighth.

Reigning Formula 2 champion Dean Stoneman will start 20th on his debut for Junior Lotus.

Pos  Driver             Team             Time       Gap
 1.  Daniel Ricciardo   Tech 1           1m34.217s
 2.  Mikhail Aleshin    Carlin           1m34.307s  + 0.090s
 3.  Esteban Guerrieri  ISR              1m34.669s  + 0.452s
 4.  Nathanael Berthon  Draco            1m34.794s  + 0.577s
 5.  Albert Costa       Epsilon Euskadi  1m34.811s  + 0.594s
 6.  Jan Charouz        P1               1m34.826s  + 0.609s
 7.  Filip Salaquarda   ISR              1m35.073s  + 0.856s
 8.  Jean-Eric Vergne   Tech 1           1m35.089s  + 0.872s
 9.  Jon Lancaster      Fortec           1m35.130s  + 0.913s
10.  Anton Nebylitskiy  KMP              1m35.139s  + 0.922s
11.  Nelson Panciatici  Junior Lotus     1m35.184s  + 0.967s
12.  Greg Mansell       Comtec           1m35.285s  + 1.068s
13.  Federico Leo       Pons             1m35.316s  + 1.099s
14.  Julian Leal        Draco            1m35.375s  + 1.158s
15.  Walter Grubmuller  P1               1m35.460s  + 1.243s
16.  Victor Garcia      KMP              1m35.494s  + 1.277s
17.  Keisuke Kunimoto   Epsilon Euskadi  1m35.655s  + 1.438s
18.  Stefano Coletti    Comtec           1m35.707s  + 1.490s
19.  Sten Pentus        Fortec           1m35.795s  + 1.578s
20.  Dean Stoneman      Junior Lotus     1m35.847s  + 1.630s
21.  Jake Rosenzweig    Carlin           1m35.881s  + 1.664s
22.  Daniel Zampieri    Pons             1m36.034s  + 1.817s
23.  Sergio Canamasas   FHV Interwetten  1m36.160s  + 1.943s
24.  Salvador Duran     FHV Interwetten  1m36.452s  + 2.235s

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