Grosjean on pole for feature race
| By Simon Strang |
Friday, March 21st 2008, 14:23 GMT |
 GP2 Asia Series points leader Romain Grosjean will start tomorrow's feature race from pole position as the Frenchman seeks his third win in five races in Sepang.
The Renault F1 test driver backed up his pace in free practice by dominating qualifying for round five of the ten-race series with ART Grand Prix. His best lap time of 1.44.182s was nearly 0.8s faster than Karun Chandhok, who shares the front row, could manage.
"This is a fantastic result!" said Grosjean. "This pole position was one of my goals of the weekend, the second one is to win tomorrow on this beautiful track. I don't feel any extra pressure from racing in front of the Formula One paddock: I just keep focused on my objectives. This is still a learning period for me."
Fisichella Motor Sport driver Adrian Valles will start third on the grid, with Chandhok's iSport teammate Bruno Senna in fourth.
Luca Filippi was fifth fastest but was one of four drivers to ignore yellow flags and was docked five places on the grid for race one. Vitaly Petrov, Hiroki Yoshimoto and Jason Tahinci were deemed the other guilty parties by the FIA stewards.
This means that Sentul feature-race winner Sebastien Buemi moves up to fifth on the grid ahead of the man who won the sprint race in Indonesia, Fairuz Fauzy.
Toyota's F1 test driver Kamui Kobayashi will start seventh with Davide Valsecchi, Yelmer Buurman and Filippi completing the top ten.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Grosjean ART 1.44.182 13
2. Chandhok iSport 1.44.965 +0.783 14
3. Valles FMS 1.45.035 +0.853 15
4. Senna iSport 1.45.094 +0.912 13
5. Buemi Arden 1.45.182 +1.000 15
6. Fauzy Super Nova 1.45.367 +1.185 14
7. Kobayashi DAMS 1.45.401 +1.219 15
8. Valsecchi Durango 1.45.471 +1.289 14
9. Buurman Arden 1.45.560 +1.378 14
10. Filippi Qi-Meritus 1.45.166 +0.984 14
11. Bakkerud Super Nova 1.45.576 +1.394 15
12. Tung Trident 1.45.704 +1.522 15
13. Hanley Barwa Campos 1.45.879 +1.697 14
14. Jelley ART 1.45.901 +1.719 14
15. Petrov Barwa Campos 1.45.483 +1.301 14
16. Valerio Durango 1.45.932 +1.750 14
17. d'Ambrosio DAMS 1.46.019 +1.837 12
18. Schleghelmilch Trident 1.46.069 +1.887 14
19. Yoshimoto Qi-Meritus 1.45.719 +1.537 15
20. Pavlovic BCN Comp. 1.46.093 +1.911 13
21. Nunes DPR 1.46.186 +2.004 13
22. Herck FMS 1.46.258 +2.076 15
23. Bonanomi Piquet Sports 1.46.281 +2.099 8
24. Puglisi Piquet Sports 1.46.923 +2.741 14
25. Ebrahim DPR 1.47.720 +3.538 15
26. Tahinci BCN Comp. 1.46.710 +2.528 15
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