Emma Kimilainen took her first W Series pole for Saturday's race at Assen after setting the quickest time in an interrupted session.
The Finnish racer posted a 1:34.758 to go quickest and led for much of the session, setting the early pace with a 1:35.562 before going on to improve in the final few minutes.
She narrowly beat Britain's Alice Powell by just 0.127s – which will be a welcome return to the front for Powell who has struggled in recent races, failing to score in the previous two rounds.
Powell starts ahead of championship leader Jamie Chadwick who looked set to go quickest, or at least onto the front row in the final minute of the session, before a red flag came out, forcing her to abandon her final attempt.
That was one of two red flag interruptions. The first came out for Shea Holbrook when she span at Turn 10 and went into the gravel trap backwards. Unable to escape, the American racer's session was cut short and she starts down in 18th.
The second pause in the session came when Vicky Piria's Tatuus F3 released a puff of blue smoke from the rear, signalling an engine failure. That forced the Italian to stop on circuit with just 50 seconds of the session remaining, bringing it to an early conclusion.
Joining Chadwick on the second row is Beitske Visser ahead of Sarah Moore. Moore will start tenth though when she serves her five-place grid penalty, which promotes Caitlin Wood, Tasmin Pepper, Fabienne Wohlwend, Marta Garcia and Gosia Rdest up a position each.
Jessia Hawkins was 11th, just over half a second adrift of the pole time as first to 13th was split by less than a second.
The Turn 18 chicane caught out several drivers, most notably Esmee Hawkey who ran wide and caught the kerb with the skid block, pushing the nose of her car into the air and landing heavily before continuing. Hawkey starts P15.
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