Formula 3 Euro Series championship leader Jules Bianchi took his fourth pole position of the season in qualifying for the opening race of the weekend at Barcelona.
The ART Grand Prix driver, who had his substantial championship lead cut from 25 points to 16 after failing to score at Brands Hatch last time out, grabbed the top spot for the first time with two minutes to go, and was never headed from there.
Bianchi even parked his car in the pits before the end of the session as the other main runners stayed out until the checkered flag, but his margin of 0.065sec over Andrea Caldarelli remained intact.
Caldarelli was on course for a shock pole before the championship leader raised his game, as SG Formula enjoyed its best qualifying session of the season by far. Henkie Waldschmidt will line up fourth for the team, with provisional polesitter Alexander Sims (Mucke) splitting the SG cars in third.
Bianchi's closest championship rival Christian Vietoris could only manage fifth on the grid for Mucke after spending much of the session in second, and he will be joined on the third row by Mexican rookie Esteban Gutierrez (ART).
Valtteri Bottas, who is hoping to overhaul Vietoris to give ART a one-two in the championship lines up seventh, while Mucke's Marco Wittmann and Sam Bird, and Signature's Tiago Geronimi complete the top 10.