Nikola Tsolov and Callum Voisin headed into qualifying with 3-place grid penalties hanging over their heads as both went too fast under the red flags during practice.
Tim Tramnitz logged a 1:32.978 to post the first proper time in qualifying. However, his time was removed.
Home hero Leonardo Fornaroli would take over as he did a 1:32.694, before fellow Italian Gabriele Minì logged a 1:32.598 to take P1. Van Hoepen, Beganovic, Goethe, Ramos, Voisin, Dunne, Meguetounif and Wurz completed the top 10 as plenty of times got deleted for track limits.
A red flag had to be thrown as Callum Voisin got a fraction wide in turn 3, gently touched the grass and spun across into the gravel at turn 4, getting beached.
Oliver Goethe took over the top as the German pumped in a 1:32.517 to pip Mini by 0.081s ahead of the second runs on new tyres. Luke Browning slotted into P5 as the championship leader got a time on the board.
Zagazeta, Esterson and Smith survived moments with the gravel trap at turns 3 and 6 respectively.
Fornaroli smashed in a 1:32.159 to reclaim top spot with 13 minutes to go, 0.141s ahead of Alex Dunne. Meguetounif put himself in P4 as he could not beat Goethe’s time.
PREMA flexed their muscles towards the end. A 1:32.156 initially put Beganovic P1. However, Lindblad responded to beat his teammate by 0.047s to take provisional pole position.
A 1:31.820 from Fornaroli put him back to the top of the charts. But he would be beaten by Santiago Ramos as the Mexican beat his Italian teammate to pole for Sunday’s feature race by 0.053s with a 1:31.767. Trident locked out the top 3 as Sami Meguetounif joined in.
Lindblad, Dunne, Beganovic, Mini, Van Hoepen, Browning, Tramnitz, Leon and Sztuka completed the top 12. The Polish driver will start on pole for the Sprint tomorrow.
Tommy Smith had a huge spin on the exit of turn 9 but continued. Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak also went through the gravel at turn 17 as he got wide on exit.
