Giedo van der Garde secures pole for Bahrain feature race

Giedo van der Garde has secured pole-position for the Bahrain GP2 feature race
for Caterham, qualifying just over a tenth ahead of Championship leader Davide
Valsecchi. Fabio Leimer is 3rd, with the two Lotus’ of Esteban Gutierrez and James
Calado floundering down in 13th and 22nd respectively.

It was the Lotus of Gutierrez who was the first driver to take to the track as
qualifying got underway, leading out a queue of drivers’ eager to get the session
underway. The Mexican also set the first timed lap of the session, albeit a highly
uncompetitive 01:53.613. This was marginally bettered by Valsecchi, as the drivers’
warmed up their tyres and set themselves up for their all important flying laps.

Esteban Gutierrez was the man who set the initial pace, however the Mexican’s
second flying lap was slightly hampered by the Barwa Addax of Dani Clos. Davide
Valsecchi set a 01:42.596 to go fastest, continuing his dominance of the 2012
Championship. Felipe Nasr was lucky not to prematurely end his session, as he ran wide
at turn 10 and nearly collected the Rapax of Tom Dillmann.

Max Chilton suffered a difficult start to qualifying, running wide on the exit of turn 10
on two consecutive flying laps. After setting the fastest time during practice, Chilton could
only manage 2nd on the option tyres as the track rubbered in.

The Venezuela GP Lazarus of Fabrizio Crestani had an equally slow start to
qualifying, initially struggling to set a timed lap with the 107% rule. The Italian was lucky to
eventually set a time within the 107% rule, which propelled him to the middle of the pack
as the session entered it’s final ten minutes.

As the drivers’ returned to the pits, and prepared for their final qualifying runs, it was
the Caterham of Giedo van der Garde who went fastest with a 01:42.451. With many
expecting Davide Valsecchi to spoil the Dutchman’s fun, it came as a huge surprise that
the Italian driver could only manage 2nd fastest +0.145 seconds off the Caterham’s time.

However, as van der Garde celebrated with his mechanics, the race stewards
announced they will investigate both van der Garde and Stefano Coletti for exceeding the
tracks limits. If the Dutchman is found guilty of exceeding the track limits whilst setting his
flying lap, he could have his time deleted which by default will award pole-position to
Davide Valsecchi.

Unlike usual GP2 weekends’, the main feature race is scheduled to take place later
in the afternoon, with the top eight traditionally being reversed after the race to determine
the grid for the sprint race tomorrow.

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