Campos’ Leonardo Pulcini has taken pole position for GP3’s Barcelona feature race to end ART’s run dating back to July 2016.
Pulcini set a time of 1m32.258s at the end of the session to deny ART’s Nikita Mazepin who had led the timesheets on three occasions.
This is the first non-ART pole since Jake Hughes put DAMS on pole at Barcelona two years’ and 17 race weekends’ ago.
It is Pulcini’s maiden pole and his second front row start in succession after starting second at Abu Dhabi’s feature last November.
Force India Formula 1 tester Mazepin first took the top spot with 21 minutes of 30 remaining before two better laps in the final 10, but was knocked down by the Italian.
Newly-announced Renault affiliate driver Anthoine Hubert was top early in the session but is set to start third ahead of team-mate and Ferrari academy driver Callum Ilott.
Niko Kari and Dorian Boccolacci began MP Motorsport’s debut year in the category by locking out the third row of the grid.
Simo Laaksonen qualified seventh, while David Beckmann was eighth.
Trident’s Alessio Lorandi and Giuliano Alesi completed the top 10, separated by just 0.5s as five teams proved competitive throughout and at one point had one Dallara car each from first to fifth.
Despite being fastest in practice, Hughes is set to begin in 11th, consistently appearing as the slowest ART competitor in this session.
Sauber F1 test driver Tatiana Calderon twice put herself into the top six but fell to 14th as the clock fell to zero.
