Arthur Pic narrowly defeated Tio Ellinas to claim pole position for the MRF Challenge support event at the Indian Grand Prix.
Formula Renault 3.5 regular Pic – who had topped the earlier free practice session – lapped the Buddh circuit in a time of 1m55.684s, putting him 0.061 seconds clear of GP3 race winner Ellinas.
FIA F3 European Championship driver Harry Tincknell claimed third place, 0.168s away from Pic.
Ex-F3 Open driver Sam Dejonghe took fourth ahead of Japan’s Yudai Jinkawa, who was the last driver within a second of pole position.
Rupert Svendsen-Cook was sixth ahead of Sean Walkinshaw, with Shinya Michimi, Renan Guerra and top local driver Parth Ghorpade.
The two 25-minute races are due to take place at 15:30 on Saturday and 12:30 on Sunday local time.
Qualifying results
| Pos | Driver | Time | Gap | Laps |
| 1 | Arthur Pic | 1:55.684 | 12 | |
| 2 | Tio Ellinas | 1:55.745 | +0.061 | 14 |
| 3 | Harry Tincknell | 1:55.852 | +0.168 | 13 |
| 4 | Sam Dejonghe | 1:56.081 | +0.397 | 13 |
| 5 | Yudai Jinkawa | 1:56.582 | +0.898 | 14 |
| 6 | Rupert Svendsen-Cook | 1:56.698 | +1.014 | 12 |
| 7 | Sean Walkinshaw | 1:56.756 | +1.072 | 13 |
| 8 | Shinya Michimi | 1:56.892 | +1.208 | 13 |
| 9 | Renan Guerra | 1:56.897 | +1.213 | 12 |
| 10 | Parth Ghorpade | 1:57.085 | +1.401 | 12 |
| 11 | Bar Baruch | 1:57.333 | +1.649 | 13 |
| 12 | Dylan Young | 1:57.801 | +2.117 | 12 |
| 13 | Ryan Cullen | 1:58.479 | +2.795 | 13 |
| 14 | Sam Brabham | 1:58.643 | +2.959 | 14 |
| 15 | Ashwin Sundar | 1:58.699 | +3.015 | 11 |
| 16 | Salman bin Rashid Al Khalifa | 1:58.898 | +3.214 | 14 |
| 17 | Vikash Anand | 1:59.629 | +3.945 | 13 |
| 18 | Laura Tillett | 2:00.903 | +5.219 | 14 |
| 19 | Christophe Mariot | 2:17.998 | +22.314 | 6 |