27 September 2014
Red Bull drivers fill the front row at the Paul Ricard
Points leader Carlos Sainz (DAMS) grabbed his seventh pole position of the season at the Circuit Paul Ricard on Saturday morning and will be joined on the front row by his Red Bull Junior Team colleague Pierre Gasly (Arden Motorsport). Matthieu Vaxiviere (Lotus) and Roberto Merhi (Zeta Corse) will line up just behind them, with Sergey Sirotkin (Fortec Motorsports) completing the top five.
Carlos Sainz was the first to show as qualifying got under way, though it was not long before Meindert van Buuren (Pons Racing), Pierre Gasly, Roberto Merhi, Sergey Sirotkin and Oliver Rowland (Fortec Motorsports) all upped the pace, with the British driver leading at the midway point.
The drivers bolted on new tyres for the final ten minutes, with the Lotus pairing of Marlon Stockinger and Matthieu Vaxiviere heading the field before Carlos Sainz stamped his authority with a lap of 1:47.436, the Spaniard taking pole from the French duo Pierre Gasly and Matthieu Vaxiviere.
Saturday’s Formula Renault 3.5 Series race at the Circuit Paul Ricard begins at 13:00.
Carlos Sainz: “It’s really good to be back on pole, especially on a weekend like this. It’s the most important pole of the year so far, but as I always say, the points are still to be given. You have to go out and do the job, and we need to keep on working on the start and on tyre degradation. It won’t be easy for sure.”
