ART Grand Prix‘s Alexander Albon closed the gap to his team-mate Charles Leclerc to 25 points, after claiming the four points for pole position at the Yas Marina Circuit. The GP3 Series leader Leclerc could only qualify in fifth while fellow title challenger Antonio Fuoco found himself down in eleventh.
The Arden International pairing of Jake Dennis and Jack Aitken completed the top three.
As the session got underway, Albon immediately set the early pace before being bettered by Dennis by two tenths before he was surpassed by Nyck de Vries.
Albon pushed on but could only go as well as to splitting the two for P2 before the Arden driver reclaimed the spot. Series leader Leclerc’s best efforts earnt him third position for the first part of qualifying just a mere 0,005s faster than the Thai driver.
Dennis found some extra time but was still a way off the McLaren junior sitting on provisional pole.
When the cars returned to track after heading into the pitlane for fresh rubber and set up changes, Dennis lit the timing screen up to go quickest by almost half a second but was once again beaten by Albon who went to the top spot by two tenths.
Leclerc was also on a charge, lighting up sector one but failed to make an improvement of his lap. Dennis was also giving it his all on his final run but backed off after realised it would not be enough to beat Albon. As the chequered flag dropped Aitken shot up to third place.
At the end of the final GP3 qualifying session of 2016, Albon took pole position and thus also closed the gap to Leclerc. Dennis grabbed his third front row start of the season and Aitken completed the trio. De Vries qualified fourth ahead of team-mate Leclerc. Santino Ferrucci, Arjun Maini, Kevin Jörg, Steijn Schothorst and Nirei Fukuzumi completed the top ten.
Race 1 takes place at 12.25 local time on Saturday, where Leclerc can be crowned champion.
Yas Marina Circuit Qualifying Results
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