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Monaco GP2: Sirotkin takes pole ahead of Nato in split session

Sergey Sirotkin secured Monaco GP2 pole position with a blistering effort in the second group of the split session

Norman Nato was quickest in group one and joins Sirotkin on the front row, but there was more disappointment for championship leader Pierre Gasly, who will start from row eight at best.

Renault Formula 1 test driver Sirotkin put his ART Grand Prix car on provisional pole by 0.035 seconds over Racing Engineering's Jordan King early in group two.

That session was then halted for nearly 20 minutes after Artem Markelov misjudged his approach to Ste Devote, launched his car over the kerbs and flew nose-first into the barriers with sufficient force to derange the armco. The Russian was unhurt.

Just under four minutes remained when the cars were let back out of the pits, giving everyone a single flying lap - and Sirotkin put his to very good use as he improved by four tenths of a second to a commanding 1m19.186s benchmark.

King stayed second, which translates to third on the grid, with Oliver Rowland on the inside of row three and Antonio Giovinazzi making a late jump up to the fourth-row spot.

Group one had produced a much more competitive session, with provisional pole changing hands eight times.

Gasly, Marvin Kirchhofer, Norman Nato, Mitch Evans, Raffaele Marciello, Alex Lynn and Nato were the main protagonists, constantly swapping positions until Nato finally edged out Evans by 0.068s to top the session with a 1m19.894s.

Lynn was third quickest so starts sixth, with Marciello and Luca Ghiotto completing the top five in the group.

Though Gasly had been the early pacesetter in the car Prema repaired following his heavy practice crash, he then reported a problem and pitted.

In the process he missed a call to the weighbridge, so while he is currently provisionally 16th on the grid it could get worse depending on the outcome of the stewards' investigation.

STARTING GRID

Pos Driver Team Time
1 Sergey Sirotkin ART Grand Prix 1m19.186s
2 Norman Nato Racing Engineering 1m19.894s
3 Jordan King Racing Engineering 1m19.691s
4 Mitch Evans Pertamina Campos Racing 1m19.962s
5 Oliver Rowland MP Motorsport 1m19.852s
6 Alex Lynn DAMS 1m20.014s
7 Antonio Giovinazzi Prema Racing 1m19.972s
8 Raffaele Marciello RUSSIAN TIME 1m20.601s
9 Nicholas Latifi DAMS 1m20.182s
10 Luca Ghiotto Trident 1m20.630s
11 Arthur Pic Rapax 1m20.360s
12 Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1m20.744s
13 Marvin Kirchhofer Carlin 1m21.016s
14 Sean Gelael Pertamina Campos Racing 1m20.877s
15 Artem Markelov RUSSIAN TIME 1m22.160s
16 Gustav Malja Rapax 1m21.965s
17 Philo Paz Armand Trident 1m22.707s
18 Daniel de Jong MP Motorsport 1m21.978s
19 Jimmy Eriksson Arden International 1m22.029s
20 Pierre Gasly Prema Racing 1m21.381s
21 Sergio Canamasas Carlin 1m20.600s
22 Nabil Jeffri Arden International 1m22.722s

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