Norman Nato has achieved in fraganti the pole position in the circuit of Monte Carlo. The french driver for the first time this season surpasses his teammate Carlos Sainz in classification, who will be in front of Jazeman Jaafar .
in Monaco, Formula Renault 3.5 qualyfing session is always special and different from the rest of the year. If we usually see two practice sessions, here we only see one, and so does the race and qualifying. Qualyfing here is divided by two groups where each group will run for 25 minutes to get the pole position.
In group A we find Sainz (Dams), Gasly (Arden Motorsport), Merhi (Zeta Corse), Sirotkin (Fortec Motorsports), Sørensen (Tech 1 Racing), Andrea Roda (Comtec Racing), Mavlanv (Zeta Corse), Vaxivière (Lotus), Van Buuren (Pons Racing), Laine ( Strakka Racing) and Luca Ghiotto (International Draco Racing). In Group B is: Rowland (Fortec Motorsports) , Stevens (Strakka Racing) , Stockinger (Lotus), Amberg ( AVF), Buller (Arden Motorsport), Jaafar (ISR), Fantin (International Draco Racing), Nato (Dams) Webb (Pons Racing) and Bestike Visser (AVF).
The session began with the group A and Laine as the first to step on the Monegasque ground. The best time was from Sirotkin’s wheel, but Sainz after 5 minutes of the first session was up to the lead but just for a few seconds as Sørensen took it in a moment. Sainz gave back close while times were improving along with adherence, considering it’s the first race of the day. Sainz continued to improve and with 16 minutes remaining had two clear rivals, Sørensen and Sirotkin. The Dams’ driver made a great lap two minutes later and nobody could make it better, so they decided to stop in the pits to change tires for the last attempt.
Thus, Sainz was leading followed by Sørensen and Laine, the debutants failed to stand out from the experienced category; when the absence of 7 minutes left out only driver with new tires.
Sainz improved bestially distancing 9 tenth from Gasly, who was coming up to second place. The next lap was going the same fact where Sainz had a lead of 8 tenths, as Sirotkin was in traffic problems.
Lacking a minute to go Sainz was the first to go down to one and twenty three and no one else could improve, leaving 1:23.873 as the time to beat for the pole position in Group B.
Group B began with Rowland in front of the classification but surprisingly , Nato became the lead during the first five minutes of the session. Nato every time he extended the distance in the first place was demonstrating power of Dams in this spectacular track in both Formula Renault 3.5 and GP2. But Jaafar, who managed a podium here last year, beat Nato and stood just 4 tenths off the fastest time of Sainz. All this began to pilots pit stop to change tires with 13 minutes left, Nato being the first one. Thus the last 10 minutes are faced with Jaafar leading the Group B, followed by Nato and Amberg .
Time passed and despite the pilots go with new tires , they all failed to improve their times until Rowland at 4 minutes to go stood less than a tenth away from Sainz. But Nato, who was beating Sainz’s time in 1:23.707, making last two minutes of Group B a fight for direct pole. Jaafar surprised everyone with an amazing second sector leader for 5/10 getting away for lack of a minute. At the end pole by Nato in fraganti.
AFTER THE SESSION, SAINZ GOT A 2-PLACES PENALTY FOR IMPEDING GASLY
THEN SAINZ WILL START FROM P4
Results:
| Pos | Driver | Nation | Team | Lap Time | |
| 1 | 2 | Norman Nato | FRA | Dams | 1:23.209 |
| 2 | 1 | Carlos Sainz | SPA | Dams | 1:23.873 |
| 3 | 17 | Jazeman Jaafar | MAL | ISR | 1:23.301 |
| 4 | 9 | Marco Sørensen | DAN | Tech 1 Racing | 1:24.262 |
| 5 | 4 | Oliver Rowland | GBR | Fortec Motorsports | 1:23.676 |
| 6 | 3 | Sergey Sirotkin | RUS | Fortec Motorsports | 1:24.675 |
| 7 | 20 | Zoel Amberg | SUI | AVF | 1:23.702 |
| 8 | 7 | Pierre Gasly | FRA | Arden Motorsport | 1:24.828 |
| 9 | 11 | Will Stevens | GBR | Strakka Racing | 1:23.924 |
| 10 | 22 | Roberto Merhi | SPA | Zeta Corse | 1:24.925 |
| 11 | 5 | Pietro Fantin | BRA | International Draco Racing | 1:23.944 |
| 12 | 26 | Meindert Van Buuren | HOL | Pons Racing | 1:25.107 |
| 13 | 15 | Marlon Stockinger | PHI | Lotus | 1:24.328 |
| 14 | 21 | Roman Mavlanov | RUS | Zeta Corse | 1:25.714 |
| 15 | 8 | William Buller | GBR | Arden Motorsport | 1:24.367 |
| 16 | 12 | Matias Laine | FIN | Strakka Racing | 1:25.834 |
| 17 | 25 | Oliver Webb | GBR | Pons Racing | 1:24.776 |
| 18 | 16 | Matthieu Vaxivière | FRA | Lotus | 1:26.072 |
| 19 | 19 | Bestike Visser | HOL | AVF | 1:25.469 |
| 20 | 6 | Luca Ghiotto | ITA | International Draco Racing | 1:26.153 |
| 21 | 28 | Andrea Roda | ITA | Comtec Racing | 1:29.698 |