Ocon secures first GP3 pole at Sochi

Mercedes junior Esteban Ocon clinched his first GP3 pole position on his final lap in qualifying at Sochi, as championship rival Luca Ghiotto suffered his worst session of the year.

The track was visibly damp for the start of qualifying but conditions were always improving as the majority of drivers decided to swap their wet tires for the medium compound. With times improving lap by lap, getting across the line as late as possible and traffic free was always going to be important.

ART Grand Prix driver Ocon ensured he was one of the last frontrunners to cross the line, doing so with a clear track ahead of him. He was on provisional pole on his penultimate lap by less than a tenth of a second before Arden International's Kevin Ceccon pipped him on his final run.

Ocon, however, was on a flyer. He set the fastest time through the opening two sectors but locked up in a scrappy final sector. Despite his minor mistakes he still did enough to record a 1m53.921s and secure pole by just 0.04 seconds from Jenzer Motorsport driver Matheo Tuscher, with Ceccon third.

Ocon's championship rival Ghiotto is further down the grid in seventh behind Alex Palou, Jann Mardenborough and Matt Parry after his worst qualifying session of the year. The Trident driver was a constant threat throughout the session but fell by the wayside on his final flying lap as others improved.

Emil Bernstorff struggled throughout the session, going off track several times at Turn 8. The Arden driver was able to improve late on though to qualify eighth, with Ferrari protege Antonio Fuoco and Status Grand Prix's Seb Morris rounding out the top 10.

Series newcomers Michele Beretta and Konstantin Tereshcenko both impressed in qualifying. The pair ran toward the head of the field for the majority of the session, but fell late as others continued to improve. They finished 12th and 15th, respectively, with Tereshcenko edging out series front-runner Marvin Kirchhofer.

Originally on Autosport.com