Stoneman clinches race one pole
Stoneman left it late in the session, eventually moving to the top of the timesheets in a frantic last five minutes that also saw Nicola De Marco, Jolyon Palmer and Sergey Afanasiev take spells at the top.
It was Afanasiev who made the best start to the session, topping the timesheets for nearly all of the opening ten minutes before the field pitted for fresh rubber. The Russian resumed his spell at the top with around ten minutes to go, only to be displaced by Jolyon Palmer as the times began to tumble.
Stoneman was next to hold provisional pole, only for Nicola De Marco to capture the position by dipping into the 1m45s bracket for the first time. The response was immediate, Stoneman shaving half a second off his previous best to sit fastest with a 1:45.597s. De Marco tried to respond, but fell agonizingly short – missing out by just over four hundredths of a second.
Stoneman, who has never raced at Brno before, enthused: "I went out there to get pole but I didn't expect to get that lap out there on a difficult track. Overall I was just chipping away at the session trying to get a quick lap – it's obviously another new track for me and I only did 19 laps yesterday so it's been pretty good. I'm fairly confident, hopefully I've got the start sussed and the aim is to win – but also to finish in front of Jolyon and Philipp."
Behind the lead duo, Sergey Afanasiev improved late on to capture third, with Benjamin Bailly also rising up through the order in the final minutes to claim fourth, just over one tenth of a second behind the Russian.