Magnussen edges Sirotkin to take pole for first Aragon race

Photo: Renault Sport/DPPI

Kevin Magnussen continued his unbeaten ways in the second weekend of the Formula Renault 3.5 season at Motorland Aragon to claim pole position for race one, although Sergey Sirotkin was less than four hundredths of a second slower than him.

With the track wet but drying, the battle for pole came down to the final few minutes. At that moment it was 17-year-old Sirotkin who moved into top spot, though Magnussen then denied him with one minute remaining, going 0.036 seconds clear. The DAMS driver had previously topped all three of the test sessions on Thursday and Friday.

?It was a good qualifying session but it wasn?t easy in these conditions,? said Magnussen afterwards. ?Getting the tyre pressure right was no simple task, but I?m happy with the job we?ve done.?

Antonio Felix da Costa finished up with the third best time, two tenths off the pace, but ran out of fuel and stopped on track. He subsequently had all his times deleted and will start from the back.

That elevates Sirotkin’s ISR teammate Christopher Zanella to third as the Czech squad repeated their fine form from Monza. Marco Sorensen had provisional pole for Lotus with five minutes remaining but was shuffled back and will start fourth.

Arthur Pic will start fifth for AV Formula, ahead of fellow Frenchman, Magnussen’s DAMS teammate Norman Nato. Nico Muller will be seventh, sharing the fourth row of the grid with championship leader Stoffel Vandoorne. The Belgian put in the fastest laps at the start of the session when the track was at its wettest, but finished the session eight tenths adrift.

Vandoorne’s Fortec teammate Oliver Webb will start ninth with Daniil Move in tenth.

Qualifying results