Esteban Gutierrez has secured the inaugural GP3 Series title by taking pole position for the final round at Monza in this morning's qualifying session.
Having moved to the top of the order with five minutes remaining, ART driver Gutierrez improved his time by almost 0.5 seconds on his final flying lap to claim pole with a 1m43.425s.
In doing so, he protected himself from a late charge from Mucke's Renger van der Zande, who also improved his time dramatically on his last lap but ended up falling 0.288s short. The two points on offer for pole were enough to finally put Gutierrez beyond the reach of rival Robert Wickens.
Jenzer driver Nico Muller, who led the early phase of the session, will share the second row with Tobias Hegewald (Mucke), leaving Wickens (Status) consigned to fifth alongside Atech CRS driver Roberto Merhi, who endured two spins along the way.
The session was interrupted by two brief bursts of yellow flags after Tech 1's Daniel Juncadella and Gutierrez's ART teammate Alexander Rossi skidded into the barriers, while Vittorio Ghirelli also had to get a lift back to the pits after spinning his Atech CRS car into the gravel just after the checkered flag.