Lorenzo Colombo takes his second Formula Renault Eurocup pole of 2019 at Paul Ricard

MP Motorsport’s Lorenzo Colombo claimed pole for the opening Formula Renault Eurocup race at Paul Ricard.

The Italian, who took two poles last year, started the season with pole position at Monza but has not been on the front row since his home round.

Colombo jumped to the top of the times in the final seven minutes of the 20-minute session, just 0.030 seconds quicker than the next best time, set by R-ace GP?s Oscar Piastri.

He lowered the benchmark with a series of fastest laps, regularly setting fastest sectors as he became the first driver to set a time under two minutes.

A final improvement as he took the chequered flag put the target time at 1m59.446s. Piastri also improved with his final lap of the session, but could only manage a time 0.120s slower than Colombo?s.

Championship leader Victor Martins swapped second place with Piastri a number of times in the closing stages of the session, but had to settle for third fastest, ahead of Alexandr Smolyar and top rookie Caio Collet.

Leonardo Lorandi ended the session sixth, ahead of a late improving Sebastian Fernandez and Joao Vieira.

Ugo de Wilde topped the times early in the session but couldn?t keep up with the improvements of those around him and dropped back to ninth as Kush Maini rounded out the top 10.

Qualifying results