Oschersleben: Series qualifying 2 report

Dean Stoneman took his sixth pole of the season, and his third in the last four races, with another accomplished performance in second qualifying at Oschersleben.

The session started on wet tyres, but with ten minutes to go a clear dry line had emerged - prompting a frantic final ten minutes as times tumbled when the field switched to slicks.

Stoneman, who wrested the overall points lead from Jolyon Palmer with his fifth victory of the year in race one, rose to the top with little over one minute of the session remaining - unleashing a 1:22.314s lap to provisionally take pole.

With one more lap possible, Stoneman went faster still in the first sector before suffering a high-speed spin into the gravel at turn four.

"I touched a puddle and it just spat me off the track," Stoneman explained. "But it's looking good for the championship now, the further back Jolyon is the better for me."

With the track yielding increasing grip, there was still chance for Stoneman to be toppled however and Italy's Nicola De Marco came closest, his final lap just 0.056s shy of Stoneman. Kazim Vasiliauskas was on a similarly late charge, although the Lithuanian too fell agonisingly short as he finished 0.081s off pole - meaning the top three were separated by less than one tenth of a second.

Race one polesitter Sergey Afanasiev continued his good form at the circuit by claiming fourth, although the Russian had been on provisional pole before the field switched to slicks for the final ten minutes.

Behind Afanasiev, the battle for fifth saw three drivers separated by just six thousandths of a second as Benjamin Bailly led home Will Bratt and Kelvin Snoeks. Bratt will therefore start alongside Bailly in sixth, with Snoeks recording one of his best qualifying performances of the year to take seventh.

Mihai Marienscu was less than one tenth of a second down the road in eighth, while Benjamin Lariche claimed his second top-ten starting berth in the last three races in ninth. Philipp Eng rounded out the top ten, edging out Angola's Ricardo Teixeira - who took his fifth points score of the season in race one - by just 0.037s.

As Stoneman continued his fine race form by taking pole, his championship rival Jolyon Palmer was not able to respond and could only manage 14th at the chequered flag. Palmer had been second with just four minutes remaining, but was one of several drivers unable to improve in the final moments as Plamen Kralev spun in the third sector.

Jack Clarke will start from the back of the field after the Briton, who was one of the first drivers to venture out on slicks, spun into the gravel at the final corner.

-source: f2