Oliver Rowland continued his impressive run in 2015 by taking pole position for opening race of the weekend at the Nurburgring, albeit in rather anticlimactic circumstances.
Fortec Motorsports’ Rowland was able to capitalise on a late red flag when Tom Dillmann stopped his Jagonya Ayam with Carlin machine at turn one with little under two minutes of the session remaining, with the drivers using new tyres in those closing moments of the session unable to complete their laps as a result.
Tio Ellinas of Strakka Racing in particular can feel hard done by because of the red flag, with the Cypriot driver over three-tenths of a second quicker than Rowland’s time at the end of the second intermediate split, although Ellinas will join Rowland on the front row of the grid due to a penalty handed to Nyck de Vries.
DAMS driver de Vries initially qualified second but will drop to fourth due to a two-place penalty handed to him for colliding with Bruno Bonifacio at Silverstone, with Dillmann moving up to third.
Matthieu Vaxiviere will start fifth for Lotus, but will be hoping to make gains in the race so not to lose ground in the championship hunt to Rowland, while sixth on the grid will be Jazeman Jaafar of Fortec Motorsports.
Pietro Fantin of International Draco Racing will start seventh alongside Dean Stoneman in the second DAMS entry, while the top ten is completed by Tech 1 Racing’s Roy Nissany and Strakka Racing’s Gustav Malja.
Nurburgring Race 1 Qualifying Result
[table id=591 /]
