Photo: Fran?ois Flamand / DPPI
Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 championship leader Nyck de Vries significantly upped his chances of securing the series title a round early at Paul Ricard by claiming pole for race one of the meeting.
Despite heading out on track among the Group A runners, whose session preceded the Group B one, de Vries managed to secure the best laptime of the morning.
The Dutchman stormed to the front of the Group A classifications with five minutes remaining in the session and, improving several times over, ended up half a second clear of nearest rival Egor Orudzhev.
Title challenger Andrea Pizzitola was third in group, as Josef Kaufmann Racing drivers Kevin Jorg and Gustav Malja completed the top five.
Thai racer Alex Albon was the pacesetter in the subsequent Group B, but only managed to get within four tenths of provisional pole, settling for a front row start.
French drivers Aurelien Panis, Anthoine Hubert and Jules Gounon followed in second, third and fourth, while de Vries’ closest points challenger Dennis Olsen was just fifth.
Qualifying results
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Group A | Group B |
| 1 | Nyck de Vries | Koiranen GP | 2:02.895 | |
| 2 | Alexander Albon | KTR | 2:03.209 | |
| 3 | Egor Orudzhev | Tech 1 Racing | 2:03.443 | |
| 4 | Aurelien Panis | ART Junior Team | 2:03.591 | |
| 5 | Andrea Pizzitola | Manor MP Motorsport | 2:03.751 | |
| 6 | Anthoine Hubert | Tech 1 Racing | 2:03.684 | |
| 7 | Kevin Jorg | Josef Kaufmann Racing | 2:03.770 | |
| 8 | Jules Gounon | AVF | 2:03.851 | |
| 9 | Gustav Malja | Josef Kaufmann Racing | 2:03.861 | |
| 10 | Dennis Olsen | Prema Powerteam | 2:03.880 | |
| 11 | Hans Villemi | Prema Powerteam | 2:03.862 | |
| 12 | Martin Rump | Fortec Motorsports | 2:03.935 | |
| 13 | Bruno Bonifacio | Prema Powerteam | 2:04.046 | |
| 14 | Jack Aitken | Fortec Motorsports | 2:04.078 | |
| 15 | Gregor Ramsay | KTR | 2:04.188 | |
| 16 | Ignazio D’Agosto | Koiranen GP | 2:04.078 | |
| 17 | Steijn Schothorst | Manor MP Motorsport | 2:04.213 | |
| 18 | Ryan Tveter | Josef Kaufmann Racing | 2:04.172 | |
| 19 | Matt Parry | Fortec Motorsports | 2:04.639 | |
| 20 | Levin Amweg | ART Junior Team | 2:04.321 | |
| 21 | Simon Gachet | ART Junior Team | 2:04.803 | |
| 22 | Callan O’Keeffe | KTR | 2:04.913 | |
| 23 | Patric Armand | Tech 1 Racing | 2:05.055 | |
| 24 | Louis Deletraz | AVF | 2:05.038 | |
| 25 | Hugo de Sadeleer | Tech 1 Racing | 2:05.134 | |
| 26 | Hong Li Ye | Koiranen GP | 2:05.505 | |
| 27 | James Allen | ARTA Engineering | 2:05.174 |