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Quaife-Hobbs claims second consecutive Auto GP pole position at Valencia

Super Nova's Adrian Quaife-Hobbs claimed his second consecutive Auto GP pole position at Valencia on Friday

The British racer was in control at the top of the timing screens for over two thirds of the half hour session, gradually improving an early effort of 1m23.911s to record an eventual pole time of 1m23.480s.

Russian Sergey Sirotkin was the only other driver to break the 1m24s barrier on Kumho's new soft compound tyres, which have been introduced at this meeting.

The Euronova Racing driver will line-up alongside Quaife-Hobbs on the front row for tomorrow afternoon's race.

As several drivers have only had their first experience on the soft tyres today, Quaife-Hobbs believes the races will mark a step into the unknown regarding tyre wear.

"I have only just done a five-lap run on the softs," continued Quaife-Hobbs. "The team was debating whether I should go out for a set-up change, but I said 'No, I'll sit in the pits and we'll make the change for qualifying'. It worked.

"In the pits I just asked for a change of front wing, and then I was able to go a tenth quicker on my second run. I think it will make an interesting race tomorrow. We have got a new set of mediums, and then race two could be a bit of a scramble.

"I am not sure if we have enough tyres to do two races on decent rubber. Let's see."

Quaife-Hobbs's Super Nova team-mate Victor Guerin ended the afternoon third fastest. The Brazilian edged out Campos Racing's second practice pacesetter Facu Regalia by just 0.034s.

Joint championship leader Pal Varhaug took fifth for Virtuosi UK. The team's second driver, series debutant Sten Pentus, struggled in 15th, having had an off-track moment in the preceding second practice session.

The top-six was completed by Campos Racing's Russian Max Snegirev.

The session proved relatively incident free, but MP Motorsport reported a brake issue on Chris van der Drift's eighth-placed entry. Team-mate Daniel de Jong suffered a driveshaft problem.

Pos  Driver               Team         Time       Gap
 1.  Adrian Quaife-Hobbs  Super Nova   1m23.480s
 2.  Sergey Sirotkin      Euronova     1m23.681s  + 0.201s
 3.  Victor Guerin        Super Nova   1m24.057s  + 0.577s
 4.  Facu Regalia         Campos       1m24.091s  + 0.611s
 5.  Pal Varhaug          Virtuosi UK  1m24.107s  + 0.627s
 6.  Maxim Snegirev       Campos       1m24.228s  + 0.748s
 7.  Sergio Campana       MLR 71       1m24.362s  + 0.882s
 8.  Chris van der Drift  Manor MP     1m24.579s  + 1.099s
 9.  Antonio Spavone      Euronova     1m24.674s  + 1.194s
10.  Daniel de Jong       Manor MP     1m24.795s  + 1.315s
11.  Yann Cunha           Ombra        1m25.021s  + 1.541s
12.  Giuseppe Cipriani    Campos       1m25.022s  + 1.542s
13.  Giancarlo Serenelli  Ombra        1m25.115s  + 1.635s
14.  Matteo Beretta       Zele         1m25.247s  + 1.767s
15.  Sten Pentus          Virtuosi UK  1m25.675s  + 2.195s
16.  Michele la Rosa      MLR 71       1m27.903s  + 4.423s
17.  Peter Milavec        Zele         1m29.725s  + 6.245s

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