Racing Engineering driver Norman Nato took provisional pole position for Saturday's GP2 Feature Race at Silverstone International Circuit.
His time of 1:38.216 was set in somewhat controversial fashion, in that it was set almost exactly as the red flag came out for the stopped car of Oliver Rowland, and it was sent to a Stewards' investigation.
The Frenchman crossed the line within tenths of seconds of track-side light boards turning red, but replays showed that the lap was completed just before the lights turned red, meaning that he may yet keep the time, amounting to his first ever Pole position in the series.
If he keeps the time, Pierre Gasly will join him on the front row of the grid to make it an all-French affair.
Sergey Sirotkin set the fifth-quickest time of the afternoon session, but could face a penalty and exlcusion from the results after failing to come to the weighbridge when summoned.
It was a highly disrupted session, with Luca Ghiotto pulling off in his Trident car after 2 minutes of the session, failing to set a time.
Nabil Jeffri also stopped around half-way into the session, bringing out the first of two red flag periods. He managed to set a time, but only good enough for 20th on the grid.
Oliver Rowland also set a lap time before his on-track stoppage with five minutes of the session to go, placing his car tenth on the grid.
Sergio Canamasas put his car 14th on the grid, but his penalty for impeding Rowland in Free Practice means he will drop three places.
Nato and Gasly will lead the field, with Nicolas Latifi and series points leader Raffaele Marciello behind. Next is the under-investigation Sirotkin, Antonio GIovinazzi, Mitch Evans, Jordan King, Arthur Pic, and Oliver Rowland, who completes the top 10.
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