FR3.5: De Vries takes Sunday Aragon pole

McLaren protege Nyck de Vries mastered improving track conditions at Motorland Aragon to take pole position on his maiden Formula Renault 3.5 weekend.

The top four were covered by just 0.081 seconds in a thrilling climax to qualifying for Sunday afternoon's race.

Last year's Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup champion, de Vries will line-up ahead of Saturday pole-sitter Matthieu Vaxiviere.

A wet track was declared at the start of qualifying, although rain had ceased.

In the preceding Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup session, drivers had commented that, despite the presence of some damp patches, slick tyres were working effectively for their last couple of laps.

Roberto Merhi was first to take to the track, throwing up only sporadic hazes of spray. The Spaniard rescued a small sideways moment on his first quick lap, indicating conditions remained tricky.

Traction exiting the Turn 6 hairpin appeared challenging, but laptimes improved rapidly.

All drivers utilised high-downforce settings, after Saturday's mandatory low-downforce trim.

The midway point marked the conclusion of everyone's first runs, and Mexican rookie Alfonso Celis Jr held provisional pole for AVF on 1m42.905s.

Fortec's Jaafar was second, ahead of a top-six comprising of Vaxiviere, Rowland, Tom Dillmann and Fantin. Eventual pole-man de Vries was 11th in his DAMS entry.

Celis remained at the top of the timing screens for 10 minutes, until a final burst of activity.

De Vries initially went quickest with three minutes left on the clocks, and exchanged fastest times with Rowland and Dillman.

The Dutch driver's final effort secured pole as the chequered flag appeared, and Lotus F1 junior Vaxiviere demoted Rowland on a well-timed last lap.

QUALIFYING TIMES:

Originally on Autosport.com