Oliver Rowland took his second Formula Renault 3.5 Series pole position of the season at the Hungaroring as his Fortec Motorsport team-mate Sergey Sirotkin’s miserable weekend continued.
Rowland set a best time of 1:30.203s to beat Frenchman Pierre Gasly of Arden Motorsport into second place by 0.153s, but Sirotkin will have to start at the back of the grid after stopping on track, causing a red flag.
Pole sitter Rowland will be hoping to take advantage of Carlos Sainz Jr’s disappointing session, with the current championship leader down in fourteenth for DAMS. Norman Nato will be hoping to help his team-mate as he starts third, the best qualifying performance from the Frenchman since his Monaco pole position in May.
It will be an all-French second row, with Matthieu Vaxiviere of Lotus joining Nato, while Briton Will Stevens will start fifth for Strakka Racing. Series debutant Esteban Ocon continued his fine first weekend for Comtec Racing, qualifying an impressive sixth.
Roberto Merhi, who had his first run in free practice for the Caterham F1 Team last weekend at Monza, will start seventh for Zeta Corse alongside Tech 1 Racing’s Marco Sorensen, while Oscar Tunjo of Pons Racing and Matias Laine of Strakka Racing fill up row five.
Hungaroring Race 1 Qualifying Times
| POS | DRIVER | NAT | TEAM | TIME |
| 1 | Oliver Rowland | GBR | Fortec Motorsports | 1:30.203 |
| 2 | Pierre Gasly | FRA | Arden Motorsport | 1:30.356 |
| 3 | Norman Nato | FRA | DAMS | 1:30.401 |
| 4 | Matthieu Vaxiviere | FRA | Lotus | 1:30.531 |
| 5 | Will Stevens | GBR | Strakka Racing | 1:30.602 |
| 6 | Esteban Ocon | FRA | Comtec Racing | 1:30.722 |
| 7 | Roberto Merhi | ESP | Zeta Corse | 1:30.783 |
| 8 | Marco Sorensen | DEN | Tech 1 Racing | 1:30.937 |
| 9 | Oscar Tunjo | COL | Pons Racing | 1:31.006 |
| 10 | Matias Laine | FIN | Strakka Racing | 1:31.263 |
| 11 | Jazeman Jaafar | MAL | ISR | 1:31.334 |
| 12 | Marlon Stockinger | PHI | Lotus | 1:31.385 |
| 13 | Pietro Fantin | BRZ | International Draco Racing | 1:31.476 |
| 14 | Carlos Sainz Jr | ESP | DAMS | 1:31.648 |
| 15 | Cameron Twynham | GBR | Comtec Racing | 1:31.920 |
| 16 | Meindert van Buuren | NED | Pons Racing | 1:32.070 |
| 17 | Roman Mavlanov | RUS | Zeta Corse | 1:32.172 |
| 18 | Beitske Visser | NED | AV Formula | 1:32.644 |
| 19 | Zoel Amberg | SWI | AV Formula | 1:32.911 |
| 20 | Nicholas Latifi | CAN | Tech 1 Racing | 1:34.146 |
| 21 | Luca Ghiotto | ITA | International Draco Racing | 1:39.702 |
| 22 | William Buller | GBR | Arden Motorsport | 1:39.859 |
| 23 | Sergey Sirotkin | RUS | Fortec Motorsports | 1:41.696 |
