Kevin Magnussen bounced back from the controversy surrounding his exclusion from the first Formula Renault 3.5 race at Paul Ricard by taking pole position for race two.

The McLaren junior driver, who had his Saturday victory taken away due to his DRS flap not conforming to the regulations, took control of the second qualifying session early on and was able to respond every time someone threatened his position.

Nigel Melker and Marco Sorensen were the only drivers to depose him briefly, and each time his next lap was strong enough to retake pole. While Sorensen did enough to hang on to second place, Melker slipped behind Nico Muller and Antonio Felix da Costa to leave him fifth on the grid.

Sixth place appeared set to go to Magnussen’s title rival Stoffel Vandoorne, but he was bumped down another place when the Dane’s DAMS team-mate Norman Nato took sixth as the checkered flag fell.

Likely Sauber 2014 Formula 1 driver Sergey Sirotkin took part in his first session of the weekend after missing all of the action up to this point due to his F1 demo run in Russia on Friday. The teenager will start 21st for the race.

Pos  Driver                  Team            Time       Gap 1.  Kevin Magnussen         DAMS            1m48.042s 2.  Marco Sorensen          Lotus           1m48.351s  +0.309s 3.  Nico Muller             Draco           1m48.423s  +0.381s 4.  Antonio Felix da Costa  Arden Caterham  1m48.501s  +0.459s 5.  Nigel Melker            Tech 1          1m48.524s  +0.482s 6.  Norman Nato             DAMS            1m48.620s  +0.578s 7.  Stoffel Vandoorne       Fortec          1m48.638s  +0.596s 8.  Will Buller             Zeta            1m48.767s  +0.725s 9.  Arthur Pic              AV              1m48.834s  +0.792s10.  Marlon Stockinger       Lotus           1m48.956s  +0.914s11.  Will Stevens            P1/Strakka      1m48.968s  +0.926s12.  Mikhail Aleshin         Tech 1          1m49.004s  +0.962s13.  Nikolay Martsenko       Pons            1m49.017s  +0.975s14.  Andre Negrao            Draco           1m49.047s  +1.005s15.  Zoel Amberg             Pons            1m49.075s  +1.033s16.  Matias Laine            P1/Strakka      1m49.112s  +1.070s17.  Lucas Foresti           SMP/Comtec      1m49.192s  +1.150s18.  Christopher Zanella     ISR             1m49.269s  +1.227s19.  Jazeman Jaafar          Carlin          1m49.299s  +1.257s20.  Pietro Fantin           Arden Caterham  1m49.368s  +1.326s21.  Sergey Sirotkin         ISR             1m49.411s  +1.369s22.  Daniil Move             SMP/Comtec      1m49.486s  +1.444s23.  Carlos Sainz Jr         Zeta            1m49.505s  +1.463s24.  Carlos Huertas          Carlin          1m49.547s  +1.505s25.  Oliver Webb             Fortec          1m49.823s  +1.781s26.  Yann Cunha              AV              1m50.147s  +2.105s