Miami GP || May 5 || 16h00 (Local time)

Davide Valsecchi secures GP2 pole in Bahrain

Davide Valsecchi in control at Bahrain for GP2!

By

20 April 2012 - 16:01

Italian driver Davide Valsecchi has set himself up for a promising race in Bahrain in GP2 tomorrow, after securing pole-position for DAMS +0.279 seconds ahead of Esteban Gutierrez in the Lotus. Valsecchi’s team-mate, rookie Felipe Nasr, was able to qualify 3rd for tomorrow’s feature race.

As expected for qualifying, the majority of the field queued up prior to the start of the session, with Johnny Cecotto jr. eventually leading the pack out of the pits. The Venezuelan driver nearly had his qualifying session ended prematurely, after coming very close to colliding with Tom Dillmann’s Rapax as the two jostled for position on their out-laps.

It was Frenchman Tom Dillmann who set the first timed lap of the session, with 01:42.925. Johnny Cecotto jr. eventually followed him and set his first timed lap of the session, woefully off Dillmann’s pace with a 01:46.640. However, this didn’t last as Cecotto finally set a competitive lap time with a 01:42.024. Previous race winner, and Sauber reserve driver, Esteban Gutierrez then went top with a 01:41.470, before the DAMS of Davide Valsecchi asserted control of the session with a 01:41.327. The Italian was then able to improve that time, to a 01:41.200 as his rookie team-mate Felipe Nasr slotted into 3rd place.

The session was then momentarily halted as debris was spotted on the exit of 15, which transpired to be the nose-cone of the Ocean Racing Technology driver of Brendon Hartley as he makes his return to the Series. As the marshals cleared away the detritus, some drivers’ swapped tyre compounds in preparation for a final stab at Valsecchi’s time with only 17 minutes remaining in the session.

Nigel Melker was the first driver out as the session resumed, but it quickly became apparent that Davide Valsecchi was comfortably safe at the top of the timing sheets. And as the checkered flag emerged, no driver was able to mount a charge against the Italian, who qualifies on pole for tomorrow’s main feature race. The grid for Sunday’s sprint race will be decided by the classification of the the feature race. However, a slight twist will see the top 8 drivers’ reversed in traditional GP2 fashion!

Follow me on Twitter - @AndyYoungF1

Pos	Driver	Team	Laptime	Laps
1.	Davide Valsecchi	DAMS	1:41.200	10
2.	Esteban Gutiérrez	Lotus GP	1:41.479	7
3.	Felipe Nasr	DAMS	1:41.785	6
4.	Fabio Leimer	Racing Engineering	1:41.798	10
5.	Johnny Cecotto	Barwa Addax Team	1:41.858	11
6.	Stéphane Richelmi	Trident Racing	1:41.862	10
7.	Marcus Ericsson	iSport International	1:41.933	10
8.	James Calado	Lotus GP	1:41.939	9
9.	Luiz Razia	Arden International	1:41.962	10
10.	Max Chilton	Carlin	1:41.980	12
11.	Rio Haryanto	Carlin	1:42.097	13
12.	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham Racing	1:42.139	12
13.	Jolyon Palmer	iSport International	1:42.156	11
14.	Dani Clos	Barwa Addax Team	1:42.158	10
15.	Tom Dillmann	Rapax	1:42.190	12
16.	Fabio Onidi	Scuderia Coloni	1:42.374	10
17.	Rodolfo Gonzalez	Caterham Racing	1:42.409	12
18.	Nathanaël Berthon	Racing Engineering	1:42.427	8
19	Julian Leal	Trident Racing	1:42.456	12
20.	Fabrizio Crestani	Venezuela GP Lazarus	1:42.706	13
21.	Brendon Hartley	Ocean Racing Technology	1:42.782	13
22.	Stefano Coletti	Scuderia Coloni	1:42.853	11
23.	Nigel Melker	Ocean Racing Technology	1:42.895	12
24.	Simon Trummer	Arden International	1:43.014	14
25.	Giancarlo Serenelli	Venezuela GP Lazarus	1:43.907	11
26.	Ricardo Teixeira	Rapax	1:44.078	14