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Abu Dhabi GP2: McLaren F1 protege Stoffel Vandoorne grabs pole

McLaren Formula 1 protege Stoffel Vandoorne claimed his fourth consecutive GP2 pole in qualifying for the series finale in Abu Dhabi

His Yas Marina performance immediately halved the eight-point gap to Felipe Nasr in his quest to overhaul the 2015 Sauber F1 signing for second in the GP2 standings. Nasr starts fifth.

Vandoorne put his ART car on top with a 1m48.736s during the first runs, before being pushed back to fourth behind DAMS duo Jolyon Palmer and Stephane Richelmi plus Russian Time man Mitch Evans when the final pole shots began.

Champion Palmer's provisional pole time of 1m48.187s was six tenths faster than Vandoorne's initial effort, but the Belgian still squeezed ahead by 0.099 seconds.

Although the frontrunners backed off to cool their tyres before trying one last time, Vandoorne was able to cruise once it became clear that the DAMS drivers were not going to topple him.

Behind Vandoorne and Palmer, Richelmi and Evans stay on row two ahead of Nasr.

Red Bull protege Pierre Gasly produced by far the best performance of his short GP2 career to qualify sixth on Caterham's final weekend before its transformation into Status.

The Formula Renault 3.5 runner-up's previous best GP2 qualifying result was a 16th place.

Arthur Pic, Ferrari junior Raffaele Marciello, Stefano Coletti and Rio Haryanto complete the top 10.

GP2 debutant Nicholas Latifi performed well to take 18th, while returnees Conor Daly and Kevin Giovesi were 20th and 25th.

Pos Driver Team Time Gap
1 Stoffel Vandoorne ART Grand Prix 1m48.088s -
2 Jolyon Palmer DAMS 1m48.187s 0.099s
3 Stephane Richelmi DAMS 1m48.374s 0.286s
4 Mitch Evans RT RUSSIAN TIME 1m48.709s 0.621s
5 Felipe Nasr Carlin 1m48.873s 0.785s
6 Pierre Gasly Caterham Racing 1m48.973s 0.885s
7 Arthur Pic Campos Racing 1m48.985s 0.897s
8 Raffaele Marciello Racing Engineering 1m49.023s 0.935s
9 Stefano Coletti Racing Engineering 1m49.326s 1.238s
10 Rio Haryanto Caterham Racing 1m49.338s 1.250s
11 Julian Leal Carlin 1m49.395s 1.307s
12 Johnny Cecotto Jr. Trident 1m49.430s 1.342s
13 Takuya Izawa ART Grand Prix 1m49.500s 1.412s
14 Sergio Canamasas Trident 1m49.505s 1.417s
15 Nathanael Berthon Venezuela GP Lazarus 1m49.518s 1.430s
16 Kimiya Sato Campos Racing 1m49.618s 1.530s
17 Daniel de Jong MP Motorsport 1m49.667s 1.579s
18 Nicholas Latifi Hilmer Motorsport 1m49.676s 1.588s
19 Andre Negrao Arden International 1m49.677s 1.589s
20 Conor Daly Venezuela GP Lazarus 1m49.721s 1.633s
21 Rene Binder Arden International 1m49.721s 1.633s
22 Marco Sorensen MP Motorsport 1m49.736s 1.648s
23 Simon Trummer Rapax 1m49.794s 1.706s
24 Jon Lancaster Hilmer Motorsport 1m49.885s 1.797s
25 Kevin Giovesi Rapax 1m50.012s 1.924s
26 Artem Markelov RT RUSSIAN TIME 1m50.414s 2.326s

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