Carlos Sainz Jr took his seventh pole position of the Formula Renault 3.5 Series season as he took the early advantage at Paul Ricard as he aims to get his championship campaign back on track.
The DAMS driver set a best lap time late in the mornings qualifying session of 1:47.436 to beat his fellow Red Bull Junior driver Pierre Gasly of Arden Motorsport into second position by six hundredths of a second.
Matthieu Vaxiviere continued the Lotus team’s good form this weekend with third position on the grid, ahead of Sainz’s main rival for the title Roberto Merhi, with the sole Zeta Corse driver of the weekend finishing up fourth.
Sergey Sirotkin was fifth for Fortec Motorsports ahead of AV Formula’s Zoel Amberg, while Friday pacesetter Marlon Stockinger was seventh in the second Lotus.
Oliver Rowland was eighth in the second Fortec Motorsports machine, with ISR Racing’s Jazeman Jaafar ninth while Marco Sorensen completed the top ten for Tech 1 Racing.
Paul Ricard Race 1 Qualifying Result
| POS | DRIVER | NAT | TEAM | TIME |
| 1 | Carlos Sainz Jr | ESP | DAMS | 1:47.436 |
| 2 | Pierre Gasly | FRA | Arden Motorsport | 1:47.498 |
| 3 | Matthieu Vaxiviere | FRA | Lotus | 1:47.784 |
| 4 | Roberto Merhi | ESP | Zeta Corse | 1:47.879 |
| 5 | Sergey Sirotkin | RUS | Fortec Motorsports | 1:47.950 |
| 6 | Zoel Amberg | SWI | AV Formula | 1:47.976 |
| 7 | Marlon Stockinger | PHI | Lotus | 1:48.068 |
| 8 | Oliver Rowland | GBR | Fortec Motorsports | 1:48.106 |
| 9 | Jazeman Jaafar | MAL | ISR | 1:48.182 |
| 10 | Marco Sorensen | DEN | Tech 1 Racing | 1:48.208 |
| 11 | Luca Ghiotto | ITA | International Draco Racing | 1:48.255 |
| 12 | Will Stevens | GBR | Strakka Racing | 1:48.275 |
| 13 | Esteban Ocon | FRA | Comtec Racing | 1:48.298 |
| 14 | Matias Laine | FIN | Strakka Racing | 1:48.352 |
| 15 | Nicholas Latifi | CAN | Tech 1 Racing | 1:48.434 |
| 16 | William Buller | GBR | Arden Motorsports | 1:48.458 |
| 17 | Norman Nato | FRA | DAMS | 1:48.505 |
| 18 | Pietro Fantin | BRZ | International Draco Racing | 1:48.551 |
| 19 | Beitske Visser | NED | AV Formula | 1:48.566 |
| 20 | Meindert van Buuren | NED | Pons Racing | 1:48.647 |
| 21 | Oscar Tunjo | COL | Pons Racing | 1:48.698 |
| 22 | Cameron Twynham | GBR | Comtec Racing | 1:49.086 |
