Grosjean had to battle back after an accident in the opening practice session of the day but, despite improving his time, had to settle for sixth on the grid, split from Buemi by another Euroseries frontrunner, Edoardo Mortara, who claimed rookie qualifying honours with Signature Plus.
“I am quite happy with my result," the Italian commented, "I managed to improve from one session to the next, and qualifying as the best-placed rookie in fifth place is not too bad.”
New Toyota
F1 reserve driver Kamui Kobayashi ended the day in seventh position, pipping new Japanese champion Kazuya Oshima and season-long rival Robert Streit, with Yelmer Buurman adding to the Euroseries contingent in the top ten.
While some drivers moved up the order, others had to make way, with Britons James Jakes and Stephen Jelley dropping out of the top ten into eleventh and 13th respectively. Esteban Guerrieri also took a tumble dropping from fifth to twelfth.
Atte Mustonen, Renger van der Zande and Walter Grubmuller were the trio not to improve, the latter pair due to accidents that brought out the red flags. Dutchman van der Zande put his Prema Powerteam Dallara into the barriers at Solitude after just 13 minutes, while Grubmuller produced the third stoppage after crashing just a minute after the resumption of action following Brendon Hartley's off.
Mustonen dropped from 16th to 20th and van der Zande from 19th to 22nd, while Grubmuller dropped behind a couple of the 'local' drivers, Michael Ho and Rodolfo Avila. There was goods news too for another local, as Jo Merszei made the cut to complete the 30-car field.
