17 October 2015
Maiden pole for Tom Dillmann in Jerez
Tom Dillmann (Jagonya Ayam with Carlin) secured the first pole of his Formula Renault 3.5 Series career at the Circuito de Jerez on Saturday, the French driver’s benchmark time of 1:28.621 putting him atop the grid from the newly crowned champion Oliver Rowland (Fortec Motorsports), rookie Egor Orudzhev (Arden Motorsport), Jazeman Jaafar (Fortec Motorsports) and Matthieu Vaxiviere (Lotus).
Threatening skies and a gusting wind greeted the drivers for a session that began with Alfonso Celis (AVF), Yu Kanamaru (Pons Racing) and Aurélien Panis (Tech 1 Racing) swapping the lead before Tom Dillmann (Jagonya Ayam with Carlin) and Nyck de Vries (DAMS) took charge, their duel being briefly interrupted when the red flag came out following an incident involving Alfonso Celis.
Tom Dillmann remained in command when the drivers came in for new tyres, though the session was interrupted once more when Dean Stoneman (DAMS) went off with three minutes remaining. Making one last bid for pole, Oliver Rowland went fastest in the first sector but made a mistake and had to settle for second behind Tom Dillmann’s time of 1:28.621. Rookie Egor Orudzhev, Jazeman Jaafar and Matthieu Vaxiviere rounded off the top five.
The penultimate Formula Renault 3.5 Series race of the 2015 season starts at 14:30.
