Enrique Ruiz has taken a somewhat surprise pole position for the Bahrain V-Prix, after an error from Nathaniel Powers and a crash for Klaas van Snelheid. The Downton duo were dominant in practice and carried that pace into the first half of qualifying, but as the track ramped up both made errors, and it was Ruiz who capitalised for his seventh pole of the season. Q1Before it even started, Q1 was a forgone conclusion after Arrow and AMR both missed the strategy deadline and therefore would not make the race, but nonetheless the session took place and all eight cars set times. It was once again Domenicalli and Franklin who topped the session, though just two tenths back was Finn Schnyder in the AMR - backing up their practice pace but causing heartache for the team due to their missed strategy deadline. Nick Addison slotted into third while Giani Ledesma - guaranteed to make Q2 regardless - pulled a stunning lap out in his Meteor to set the fourth fastest time. Incredibly, this meant Arrow - who wouldn't have made Q2 anyway, but have looked easily the second best team in Q1 in recent races - didn't get either car in the top four for the first time since Silverstone. Felix Beyer ended the session slowest - nearly a second back from his team mate - but automatically made Q2 anyway. See below for full Q1 classification: Q2With Q2 taking place in twilight, everyone expected track conditions to improve as the temperatures cooled later in the session, meaning a relatively slow start. Will Hoskins took pole initially for FIRST as Downton and Mathershaw Porsche waited out in the garages, but once the foursome took to the track they swiftly demoted the Brit. van Snelheid was first up and took provisional pole with Powers slotting into second, but Ruiz managed to split the duo with his first lap, before Adrien Simon got within half a tenth of van Snelheid on pole. Further back, Nick Addison found himself a stunning ninth after the first runs in Q2, but as the light faded and the temperatures cooled the conditions improved, with first Johan Halvosen taking third and then Sergio Alvarez slotting into fifth - the track ramping up enough to allow the midfield runners to interrupt the top six. As the conditions rapidly improved, times tumbled at the top - with Powers and Perez sitting on provisional pole before another mighty lap from van Snelheid displaced them both, with Ruiz once again slotting into second place. With just eight minutes to go however, the drama ramped up. As the cameras followed an incident between Perez and Milkovich into turn one in which the Mexican lost his front wing, van Snelheid crashed off camera at the fast turn 8, backing his Downton heavily into the wall after taking too much kerb at the second apex. As this occurred, Simon took the top spot but was swiftly beaten by Ruiz as Mathershaw Porsche looked to capitalise and secure an unlikely front row lockout. Downton and Powers were not to be outdone though, and the triple Champion hooked up two purple sectors as he looked to improve from fifth, but a huge slide into turn 12 cost him considerable time, and the Brit just beat out Simon by 9 thousandths to take a front row start. Behind the top four Perez recovered to secure fifth over Hoskins, while an excellent effort from Thierry Xylander put the Belgian best of the rest ahead of Halvosen, Puccio Giodano and another strong performance from Dominykas Zvironas. Marcus Thunder took Lucas' highest qualifying position of the year in twelfth to split the Ingram's - but won't get to start there after the team missed the strategy deadline, while Nick Addison put his Franklin a strong fourteenth quickest - and will start one place higher. Alvarez struggled to improve on his later runs and was a disappointed fifteenth, but it was a bad day once again for Lopez - with Elroy Wagner their highest placed car in nineteenth. Allar Kangur showed pace with eighth in practice yesterday, but a hydraulics issue sidelined the Estonian, puting him at the back of the grid. Hunter Ryan's engine issues from practice also persisted, with the Australian managing just one lap right at the end of the session, though it only proved good enough to put him ahead of Giani Ledesma, with a lot of work to do. See below for full Q2 classification and grid:
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