Christian Lundgaard took the first pole position of the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup season on Saturday, with the Renault Sport Academy star edging out MP Motorsport team-mate Alex Peroni by just 0.007 seconds around the streets of Pau.
Despite spots of rain, all seventeen drivers were able to remain on dry tyres during the session, and it was the Dane who left it late to take top spot with a lap of 1:14.080s, denying Peroni the position by the tiniest of margins.
Behind the leading two was Tech 1 Racing’s Alexander Smolyar, who had topped the session for most of the session before dropping to third when the times tumbled, with the Russian being joined on row two by R-ace GP’s Logan Sargeant.
R-ace GP duo Charles Milesi and Victor Martins will line-up on row three, while the Red Bull-backed Neil Verhagen was more than seven-tenths of a second off the pole time in seventh for Tech 1 Racing, with the American finishing ahead of team-mates Thomas Neubauer and Frank Bird.
Arthur Rougier, the third Renault-backed driver in the field alongside Lundgaard and Martins, ended tenth for Fortec Motorsports after tumbling down the order late on, while Anders Motorsport’s Doureid Ghattas ended outside the top ten but the leading full-time NEC competitor ahead of R-ace GP’s Gabriel Gandula and Formula Motorsport duo Nicolas Melin and Nicolas Pironneau.
The field is rounded out by ScoRace Team’s Sharon Scolari, Lamo Racing Car’s Thierry Malhomme and Anders Motorsport’s Phil Hill.
