Nathaniel Powers has taken his maiden pole position of the season ahead of the 2019 Chinese V-Prix, but Downton were sensationally denied a second consecutive front-row lockout by the FIRST of Felix Pérez, who secured the American team's first ever front row start. Pérez's final lap was just half a tenth shy of Powers' session-topping effort, and one-and-a-half tenths clear of the second Downton of Klaas van Snelheid, who will start tomorrow's race from 3rd on the grid. Q1 After their impressive pace in Friday Practice, it was Meteor once again setting the pace in Q1, with Mario Juan Lopez two-and-a-half tenths clear of his teammate Jules Simon at the head of the timesheets, and half a second ahead of the fastest non-Meteor in the session, the Andromeda of Rodolfo de la Fuente. Will Hoskins in the second Andromeda shadowed the Spaniard in 4th, despite a minor slide at the final corner, finishing just three thousandths of a second ahead of AMR's Finn Schnyder, with Arden Hutchinson rounding out the qualifiers for Lucas. For the third race in succession, Cheema found their Friday pace deserting them, Nikolai Milkovich over two tenths away from the qualification threshold, separated from his teammate Carson Davenport by the AMR of Dmytro Kovalenko. Marcus Thunder suffered a lack of confidence in the brakes on his Lucas as he could only manage 10th, leaving the two Excelsiors of Karl Beckenbauer and Lewis Ellington to post the slowest times of the session. Full Q1 classification can be seen below. Q2 The two Downton drivers made their intentions known straight out of the blocks, both beginning to set representative times just five minutes into the session. Behind them, briefly, was Q1-topper Mario Juan Lopez, before the rest of the big hitters began to take to the track for their first flyers. The Phoenix duo of Sergio Álvarez and Thierry Xylander took turns delivering a tow to one another down the long back straight in an effort to climb the timesheets, which saw the Belgian enter the top ten for a spell, before current championship leader Enrique Ruiz leapt to the top of the times for Franklin. Adrien Simon was forced to abort his first effort, the DS Mathershaw driver coming across the Ocelot of Hunter Ryan at the final corner while the Australian was trying to find some clean air. Arthur Lapierre took the opportunity to offer some quick words of advice to the neighbouring Ocelot pit wall. As the session passed the halfway mark, Allar Kangur edged out Ruiz for DS Mathershaw, before Powers reclaimed the top spot, with van Snelheid slotting in right behind him, and Tumo Kinnumen moving into fifth for Franklin, just ahead of Pérez. Both traffic and a few driver errors meant Adrien Simon failed to put together a clean lap, and could only set the seventh fastest time, with Oleksandr Zozulya less than two tenths further back in eighth. Just when the grid appeared to have been settled, Pérez started his final flying lap with seconds to spare, and set both the fastest first and second sectors of the session. Pole position appeared to be on the cards for the Mexican, before a missed apex at the hairpin cost him a tenth and left him having to settle for second, the Downton garage breathing a sigh of relief. Sebastian Bergkvist impressed in ninth for Holmqvist, ahead of the two North Stars, Johan Halvosen earning a top ten start at the expense of his teammate, Gabriele García. Will Hoskins qualified best of the new teams in seventeenth, with Finn Schnyder, as in Japan, bringing up the rear of the grid. Full Q2 classifications can be seen below, along with tyre selections for the grid on race day.
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