Spielberg FR3.5: Rowland on pole for Race 1
Fortec Motorsport’s Oliver Rowland grabbed his third pole of the 2015 season to start Sunday’s Race 1 from the front row at Red Bull Ring.
Photo by: DPPI
Alongside the Brit will be the current GP2 driver Marlon Stockinger, who returns to the Formula Renault 3.5 fold with Lotus after their regular driver Meindert van Buuren switched to Pons Racing in the fifth round.
Rowland went to the top of the timesheets with two minutes remaining, setting the fastest time of 1:17.641 while Stockinger in his first race this season finished just 0.214 seconds away from polesitter.
In third was Lotus’ Matthieu Vaxiviere, who headed the timesheet before the brief red flag stoppage. Red Bull protege Dean Stoneman (DAMS) finished fourth and was the last of the drivers' to dip under 1:18’s.
A final lap dash after the chequered flag put Manor F1’s Roberto Merhi (Pons Racing) at fifth while DAMS Nyck de Vries finished sixth.
The top 10 was rounded off by Gustav Malja (Strakka Racing) at seventh, Nicholas Latifi Arden Motorsport) eighth, Tom Dillmann (Jagonya Ayam with Carlin) ninth and Tio Ellinas (Strakka Racing) tenth.
The top 15 were covered by 0.982 seconds only in a closely fought Qualifying 1 of the weekend.
The session was red flagged for a brief period with 10 minutes remaining because of Pietro Fantin, who had stopped at the pit exit. As a consequence, he dropped from sixth to 19th in the end.
Qualifying 2 is slated to start at 17:25 local time.
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