Photo: Jean Michel Le Meur / DPPI / Renault Sport Media
Racing Steps Foundation protege Oliver Rowland took his first pole position in Formula Renault 3.5 in Sunday qualifying at Aragon.
Rowland timed his quickest lap well and cleared nearest rival Pietro Fantin by 0.169s.
The Brit foreshadowed his late-session resurgence early on, leading the field to the midpoint of the running. However, he found himself shuffled down the field in the second wave of flyers, as Brazilian Fantin assumed the lead with two minutes to go.
The Draco driver’s effort was nearly enough for pole as he held first to the checkered flag, but a last-second lap from Rowland allowed the Brit to return to the lead.
Pierre Gasly seemed to struggle early on in the session, but managed to vault himself to the front in the closing stages of the session, eventually finishing best of the rest behind Rowland and Fantin.
On row two, the Frenchman will be joined by Strakka’s Will Stevens, with fellow Red Bull Junior Team member Carlos Sainz right behind Gasly in fifth.
ISR’s Jazeman Jaafar took sixth ahead of Fortec’s Sergey Sirotkin and Draco driver Luca Ghiotto, who stopped on track in the course of his final lap. Tech 1’s sole racer Marco Sorensen was ninth, while Zoel Amberg completed the top ten.
Race result
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
| 1 | Oliver Rowland | Fortec Motorsports | 1:39.885 | 13 | |
| 2 | Pietro Fantin | International Draco Racing | 1:40.054 | 0.169 | 14 |
| 3 | Pierre Gasly | Arden Motorsport | 1:40.357 | 0.472 | 13 |
| 4 | Will Stevens | Strakka Racing | 1:40.375 | 0.490 | 13 |
| 5 | Carlos Sainz | DAMS | 1:40.457 | 0.572 | 14 |
| 6 | Jazeman Jaafar | ISR | 1:40.461 | 0.576 | 13 |
| 7 | Sergey Sirotkin | Fortec Motorsports | 1:40.493 | 0.608 | 13 |
| 8 | Luca Ghiotto | International Draco Racing | 1:40.573 | 0.688 | 12 |
| 9 | Marco Sorensen | Tech 1 Racing | 1:40.601 | 0.716 | 13 |
| 10 | Zoel Amberg | AVF | 1:40.606 | 0.721 | 13 |
| 11 | Matthieu Vaxiviere | Lotus | 1:40.618 | 0.733 | 13 |
| 12 | Nikolay Martsenko | Comtec Racing | 1:40.630 | 0.745 | 13 |
| 13 | William Buller | Arden Motorsport | 1:40.643 | 0.758 | 13 |
| 14 | Beitske Visser | AVF | 1:40.749 | 0.864 | 13 |
| 15 | Roberto Merhi | Zeta Corse | 1:40.796 | 0.911 | 10 |
| 16 | Marlon Stockinger | Lotus | 1:40.852 | 0.967 | 14 |
| 17 | Norman Nato | DAMS | 1:40.977 | 1.092 | 14 |
| 18 | Oliver Webb | Pons Racing | 1:40.994 | 1.109 | 13 |
| 19 | Matias Laine | Strakka Racing | 1:41.015 | 1.130 | 14 |
| 20 | Meindert van Buuren | Pons Racing | 1:41.118 | 1.233 | 14 |
| 21 | Roman Mavlanov | Zeta Corse | 1:41.888 | 2.003 | 11 |
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