Photo: Clement Luck / DPPI
Victor Martins edged his Formula Renault Eurocup title rival Caio Collet to take pole position for the opening race of the weekend at Zandvoort.
ART Grand Prix’s Martins notched up his fifth pole from the first nine races of the season in a session dominated by the two title protagonists.
JD Motorsport’s William Alatalo brought out the red flag just before the halfway mark in the session when he nestled his car into the barriers.
When the session resumed, it was championship leader Martins who topped the leaderboard with a benchmark of a 1m31.215s – enough for him to earn his 16th pole in the championship.
Renault junior Collet was second-fastest, just 0.127s shy of Martins’ best effort. Collet’s R-ace GP team-mate Petr Ptacek was third-fastest but over nine-tenths slower than Martins.
Spanish karting graduate David Vidales was the highest-placed rookie in fourth position ahead of another Renault junior, Hadrien David.
Amaury Cordeel was sixth-quickest ahead of MP Motorsport’s Franco Colapinto. Gregoire Saucy was able to pip his ART Grand Prix team-mate Paul Aron to eighth place by just 0.001s.
Alex Quinn rounded out the top 10 for Arden while Roman Stanek was 15th fastest for MP in his maiden Eurocup qualifying session.
Qualifying results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Victor Martins | ART Grand Prix | 1m31.215s | 12 | |
| 2 | Caio Collet | R-ace GP | 1m31.342s | +0.127s | 11 |
| 3 | Petr Ptacek | R-ace GP | 1m32.140s | +0.925s | 11 |
| 4 | David Vidales | JD Motorsport | 1m32.164s | +0.949s | 13 |
| 5 | Hadrien David | MP Motorsport | 1m32.182s | +0.967s | 13 |
| 6 | Amaury Cordeel | FA Racing by Manor | 1m32.206s | +0.991s | 12 |
| 7 | Franco Colapinto | MP Motorsport | 1m32.213s | +0.998s | 12 |
| 8 | Gregoire Saucy | ART Grand Prix | 1m23.245s | +1.030s | 12 |
| 9 | Paul Aron | ART Grand Prix | 1m32.246s | +1.031s | 12 |
| 10 | Alex Quinn | Arden | 1m32.290s | +1.075s | 12 |
| 11 | Lorenzo Colombo | Bhaitech | 1m32.712s | +1.497s | 11 |
| 12 | Ugo de Wilde | Arden | 1m32.723s | +1.508s | 13 |
| 13 | Tijmen van der Helm | FA Racing by Manor | 1m32.880s | +1.665s | 12 |
| 14 | Reshad de Gerus | Arden | 1m33.220s | +2.005s | 13 |
| 15 | Roman Stanek | MP Motorsport | 1m33.382s | +2.167s | 13 |
| 16 | Nicola Marinangeli | Bhaitech | 1m33.463s | +2.248s | 12 |
| 17 | Laszlo Toth | Bhaitech | 1m33.937s | +2.722s | 13 |
| 18 | William Alatalo | JD Motorsport | 1m38.269s | +7.054s | 3 |