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Auto GP Brno: Vittorio Ghirelli takes crucial pole at final round

Auto GP championship leader Vittorio Ghirelli secured a crucial pole position ahead of the first race of Brno's title-deciding final round of the season

The Super Nova driver, who claimed an all-important bonus point for his achievement, increased his series lead to 12 points over Kimiya Sato with now just 47 remaining for the weekend's pair of races.

Ghirelli was the only driver to break under the one minute 43-second mark.

The Italian recorded a time of 1m42.833s three minutes before the end of the half-hour session, and his bid for pole was assisted when the red flags came out following an incident involving series debutant Josef Kral.

The Czech's Zele Racing machine was beached in a dangerous position in the gravel at Turn 7.

The hopes of Ghirelli's title rivals Sato, Sergio Campana and practice pace-setter Narain Karthikeyan of toppling the Italian, were as good as done at that point, as with just three minutes left on the clock, there was insufficient time for drivers to work their tyres up to optimum temperatures after the restart.

Karthikeyan had particular reason to be frustrated, as he was setting purple sectors on the lap on which the red flags were produced and appeared likely to capture pole.

The Indian, Ghirelli's Super Nova team-mate, suffered further dramas when his car became stranded at the pit exit while attempting to join the track on the restart, ending his opportunity of starting at the front.

He was third fastest, one spot behind Kevin Giovesi, who held pole for a few seconds near the end of the session, only to be demoted by Ghirelli, who was following close behind.

Fourth fastest was Giovesi's Ghinzani team-mate Robert Visoiu while early-season points leader Campana was over a second in arrears of Ghirelli's benchmark in fifth.

The Italian was still three places better off than the last of the title contenders, Sato, in eighth.

Tamas Pal Kiss completed the top six for Zele Racing, ahead of Meindert van Buuren.

Pos  Driver               Team             Time       Gap
 1.  Vittorio Ghirelli    Super Nova       1m42.833s
 2.  Kevin Giovesi        Ghinzani         1m43.082s  +0.249s
 3.  Narain Karthikeyan   Super Nova       1m43.337s  +0.504s
 4.  Robert Visoiu        Ghinzani         1m43.809s  +0.976s
 5.  Sergio Campana       Ibiza            1m43.991s  +1.158s
 6.  Tamas Pal Kiss       Zele             1m44.134s  +1.301s
 7.  Meindert van Buuren  Manor MP         1m44.362s  +1.529s
 8.  Kimiya Sato          Euronova         1m44.404s  +1.571s
 9.  Daniel de Jong       Manor MP         1m44.440s  +1.607s
10.  Andrea Roda          Virtuosi         1m44.611s  +1.778s
11.  Roberto La Rocca     Comtec/Virtuosi  1m44.933s  +2.100s
12.  Maxim Snegirev       Virtuosi         1m45.363s  +2.530s
13.  Yoshitaka Kuroda     Euronova         1m45.828s  +2.995s
14.  Josef Kral           Zele             1m46.150s  +3.317s
15.  Francesco Dracone    Ibiza            1m46.300s  +3.467s
16.  Michela Cerruti      MLR 71           1m47.381s  +4.548s
17.  Michele La Rosa      MLR 71           1m48.622s  +5.789s

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