Mitch Evans took pole position for the first GP3 race of the weekend at the Nurburgring, in a session where the top four cars were covered by less than one tenth of a second.
The former championship leader snatched top spot in the final two minutes of a session which came alive once the leading runners got their second sets of tires up to temperature with just over five minutes remaining. In the frantic activity that followed, early provisional polesitter Tom Dillmann initially extended his gap over the field to a comfortable half a second.
Several drivers then chipped away at that advantage, before Evans, Antonio Felix da Costa and Rio Haryanto all edged ahead of the Frenchman at the end.
Aaro Vainio and Adrian Quaife-Hobbs were next up, just ahead of championship leader Alexander Sims. The Status driver set the best first sector of all, but his hot lap fell away in particular in the middle sector in particular. Lewis Williamson and James Calado will line up seventh and eighth.