Jake Hughes has secured pole position for the opening race of the 2016 GP3 season at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain.
The British racer stormed to pole position with a late 1m34.632s to beat his team-mate Kevin Jorg by just one and a half tenths, making it an all DAMS front row.
Times quickly tumbled throughout the 30-minute session as the circuit rubbered in and conditions improved. Charles Leclerc and Nirei Fukuzumi were next up for ART Grand Prix, with Jake Dennis leading Arden’s charge in fifth.
Jenzer’s Oscar Tunjo and Trident driver Antonio Fuoco set the sixth and seventh best times in qualifying, with Alex Albon, Ralph Boschung and Jack Aitken next up for ART GP, Koiranen GP and Arden respectively.
Aitken lost time in traffic on his best lap. There were plenty of rookie drivers making an impression in the top 10. Nyck de Vries and Tatiana Calderon were 11th and 12th, while Richard Gonda – who set the pace in practice – and Steijn Schothorst will start on the seventh row of the grid.
Giuliano Alesi, son of ex-F1 driver Jean, will line up 15th, ahead of Matevos Isaakyan, Matt Parry, Santino Ferrucci and Konstantin Tereshchenko. GP3 drivers with more experience in the series, Sandy Stuvik, Artur Janosz and Alex Palou were 21st, 22nd and 24th.
