Enrique Ruiz has set a new record for consecutive pole positions by taking the top spot in qualifying ahead of the French V-Prix. For the first time in four races however Ruiz won't be joined by team mate Adrien Simon on the front row, as the home hero could only manage sixth with Felix Perez starting second following his maiden win last time out. Q1For the first time this season Q1 reflected the teams in the bottom four of the Championship, meaning both Lucas and Meteor had to fight for their places on the grid for the first time while Cheema and Westwood could prepare immediately for Q2. For Arrow and AMR, this process remains familiar - and it showed, with the German outfit lapping immediately to get banker times in, duly taking the top two spots. Impressively, these times held up well. Dmytro Kovalenko split the pair but Finn Schnyder found himself blocked lap after lap by rivals, eventually ending up some 1.4 seconds off the pace and incredibly frustrated - though neither AMR would have made the grid anyway due to missing the strategy deadline. As for Meteor and Lucas, this session proved a throwback to 2019. After several laps Marcus Thunder finally toppled Yakumi Takahashi from the top of the times - albeit by just seventeen thousandths of a second - but team mate Carson Davenport encountered the same troubles as Schnyder, and failed to get a clean lap. This was largely due to the slow Felix Beyer. The Dutchman clearly had a mechanical issue with his Meteor that the team tried to resolve throughout, as he left the garage, completed a slow lap and returned to the pits again on five different occasions, ultimately not setting a time and being eliminated. Team mate Giani Ledesma lapped a tenth slower than Ellington, but by virtue of being quicker than the held up Davenport, his team mate failing to set a time and the two AMR's being disqualified, he took the final spot on the grid. See below for full Q1 classification: Q2Arrow briefly celebrated getting both cars into Q2 for the first time with back-slapping and handshakes, but were still on the ball enough to ensure both cars got out first in Q2 - enabling them to very briefly hold a front row lockout - for six seconds before Johan Halvosen shot to the top of the times. The Dane was them himself misplaced by the usual runners; with Ruiz going to the top ahead of the Downton duo of Nathaniel Powers and Klaas van Snelheid - while Adrien Simon languished in ninth after a disappointing first run. Nobody proved more disappointed than the Lopez team however, who - after winning the opening race in Japan - have slipped considerably, to the position of not scoring points last time out. The team were keen to rectify that here, but could only manage 16th and 20th in qualifying - with both drivers complaining of a lack of confidence the car. While neither car was particularly slow, they found themselves lower than usual due to the condensed nature of the field on such a short track, as only 1.2 seconds covered all 26 cars at the end of the session. At the front, FIRST - still on a high after their maiden win last time out - made much better jobs of their final runs - with Perez displacing Powers from the front row, and Hoskins duly splitting the Downton duo. An improved but still lacklustre lap from Adrien Simon means the home favourite will only start sixth, while Hunter Ryan's late lap put him ahead of both North Star's - Gabriele Garcia impressively much closer to Halvosen's pace than usual. The final position in the top ten was dominated by a late flurry of incredibly close laps. Firstly Jean Mattson took the honours but he was soon beaten - albeit by just nine thousandths of a second - by a stellar effort from Yakumi Takahashi in the Arrow; the Japanese star immediately on the radio to celebrate a 'near-perfect' lap. It wasn't to be however, as Phoenix driver Thierry Xylander lapped just a minuscule one thousandth quicker to take the final top ten spot. Nonetheless Takahashi starts a stunning eleventh, with Puccio Giodano for company on row six, the Italian also ousting Mattson by just one thousandth of a second. Both Mattson and Ingram were disappointed in their qualifying after a strong showing in practice with the two cars lining up on row seven. Behind, just three tenths of a second split fifteenth to last, with it really proving a lottery as to who ended up where. As it was; Dominykas Zvironas is only fifteenth for Ocelot, while Tumo Kinnumen is four places but only a tenth ahead of his team mate in eighteenth. Marcus Thunder could only manage 23rd in the sole Lucas entry ahead of Karl Beckenbauer - who finds himself on the penultimate row for the second time in two weekends - while Franklin were disappointed to be confined to the back row after scoring a point last time out. See below for full Q2 classification and grid for the race:
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