Photo: Dirk Bogaerts
Ukyo Sasahara claimed pole position for the first of the weekend’s Formula Renault 2.0 NEC races at the Nurburgring, before championship leader Louis Deletraz topped Q2.
The first of the 20-minute sessions began on a wet track, but following a red flag period for an incident involving Dries Vanthoor, the times improved enough for Sasahara to set a pole time underneath the morning practice pace.
He improved to a 1m56.096s on his final lap to cement first place, as Deletraz climbed to second ahead of Josef Kaufmann Racing team-mate and chief title rival Kevin Jorg.
Top rookie Max Defourny was shuffled back from second to fourth behind the Swiss duo in the closing stages.
His and Sasahara’s ART Junior team-mate Darius Oskoui took fifth, with Force India protege Jehan Daruvala sixthedging out new Fortec team-mate Stefan Riener by just three thousandths of a second for sixth.
Nikita Mazepin was eighth for JKR in front of Koiranen’s Dan Ticktum and AVF’s Josef Zaruba.
Deletraz had the upper hand on Sasahara in the second session, overturning his one-tenth deficit to the Japanese driver as he set a 1m55.518s to take pole.
Jorg had to settle for fourth in Q2 behind an improved Daruvala. Defourny and Oskoui will form row three ahead of Riener and Mazepin, with?Alex Gill?and Ticktum sharing row five.
FR2.0 debutant Ameya Vaidyanathan took 17th and 16th in the two sessions.
Vanthoor – who took his first car racing win last time out at Assen – didn’t return to the track for the second session, which was also missed by Koiranen’s Bruno Baptista.
Qualifying results
| Qualifying 1 | ? | Qualifying 2 | ||||||
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Pos | Driver | Team | Time | |
| 1 | Ukyo Sasahara | ART Junior Team | 1:56.096 | 1 | Louis Deletraz | Josef Kaufmann Racing | 1:55.518 | |
| 2 | Louis Deletraz | Josef Kaufmann Racing | 1:56.205 | 2 | Ukyo Sasahara | ART Junior Team | 1:55.637 | |
| 3 | Kevin Jorg | Josef Kaufmann Racing | 1:56.241 | 3 | Jehan Daruvala | Fortec Motorsports | 1:55.749 | |
| 4 | Max Defourny | ART Junior Team | 1:56.363 | 4 | Kevin Jorg | Josef Kaufmann Racing | 1:55.777 | |
| 5 | Jehan Daruvala | Fortec Motorsports | 1:56.425 | 5 | Max Defourny | ART Junior Team | 1:55.795 | |
| 6 | Darius Oskoui | ART Junior Team | 1:56.985 | 6 | Darius Oskoui | ART Junior Team | 1:56.028 | |
| 7 | Stefan Riener | Fortec Motorsports | 1:57.001 | 7 | Stefan Riener | Fortec Motorsports | 1:56.218 | |
| 8 | Nikita Mazepin | Josef Kaufmann Racing | 1:57.228 | 8 | Nikita Mazepin | Josef Kaufmann Racing | 1:56.574 | |
| 9 | Daniel Ticktum | Koiranen GP | 1:57.246 | 9 | Alex Gill | Fortec Motorsports | 1:56.620 | |
| 10 | Josef Zaruba | AVF | 1:57.355 | 10 | Daniel Ticktum | Koiranen GP | 1:56.655 | |
| 11 | Alex Gill | Fortec Motorsports | 1:57.513 | 11 | Josef Zaruba | AVF | 1:56.772 | |
| 12 | Henrique Chaves | AVF | 1:57.531 | 12 | Henrique Chaves | AVF | 1:56.791 | |
| 13 | Pontus Fredricsson | Prizma Motorsport | 1:57.568 | 13 | Colin Noble | MGR Motorsport | 1:57.156 | |
| 14 | Colin Noble | MGR Motorsport | 1:58.123 | 14 | Pontus Fredricsson | Prizma Motorsport | 1:57.335 | |
| 15 | Bruno Baptista | Koiranen GP | 1:58.223 | 15 | Bartek Mirecki | BM Racing | 1:58.105 | |
| 16 | Bartek Mirecki | BM Racing | 1:58.453 | 16 | Ameya Vaidyanathan | MGR Motorsport | 1:59.081 | |
| 17 | Ameya Vaidyanathan | MGR Motorsport | 1:59.186 | 17 | Pietro Peccenini | TS Corse | 1:59.197 | |
| 18 | Pietro Peccenini | TS Corse | 1:59.394 | 18 | Harri Salminen | PositiOne Motorsport | 1:59.500 | |
| 19 | David Richert | Inter Europol Competition | 2:00.485 | 19 | David Richert | Inter Europol Competition | 2:00.189 | |
| 20 | Harri Salminen | PositiOne Motorsport | 2:00.974 | 20 | Mikko Perttala | PositiOne Motorsport | 2:02.891 | |
| 21 | Mikko Perttala | PositiOne Motorsport | 2:05.617 | Dries Vanthoor | Josef Kaufmann Racing | No time | ||
| 22 | Dries Vanthoor | Josef Kaufmann Racing | 2:09.054 | Bruno Baptista | Koiranen GP | No time | ||