Dropping back to tenth in group, Mann conceded fourth place to Charles Pic, who will now start from the front row in race one, as the series implements the reversed top eight portion - involving the top four from each group - of its new qualifying procedure.
Knowing their target, Group B set about the task of trying to beat Wickens' mark, but early progress - in which Interwetten's Salvador Duran led Comtec's Marco Bonanomi and Jousse - was interrupted by a yellow flag to cover Aleix Alcaraz's crashed RC entry.
When the caution was removed, a flurry of quick times pushed van der Garde to the head of the pack, the Dutchman's 1min 36.941secs effort already good enough to ensure that his group would be the fastest of the day.
Draco's Bertrand Baguette moved into second, with Bonanomi third, but the target moved again when an der Garde improved to 1min 36.480secs on his next flying lap. Bonanomi also improved, but only by enough to overtake Baguette, who then fell back two places as Fabio Carbone and Duran moved up into third and fourth respectively. The Belgian was only able to reclaim fourth place with a determined final run.
"It was a nice way to celebrate my birthday, and it's also just reward for P1 Motorsport," van der Garde said of his pole, "Everyone has worked really hard to make sure we were ready for today. I'll have to be cautious in the first race and try and finish in the top three - then I have to win race two."
With the qualifying procedure not running its full course, both van der Garde and Wickens will be awarded the four points for 'pole'.
"I did what I had to do," the Canadian commented, "My season has started with four points, which is a real positive. We have been among the leaders throughout and that can only be a good sign for the races."
![Giedo van der Garde - P1 Motorsport [pic credit: Renault Sport Media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/432036.jpg)
