Hulkenberg takes home pole
Nico Hulkenberg scored a home track pole position for tomorrow's GP2 Series race at the Nurburgring after an eventful qualifying session this afternoon
The German edged Roldan Rodriguez out of the top spot with a 1m38.161s five minutes before the end of the session, beating the Piquet GP driver by just 0.089s.
Hulkenberg's cause was helped when Luca Filippi spun and stranded himself in the traffic island at the final chicane immediately after the ART driver moved to the top of the sheets, bringing out yellow flags in the final sector.
The stricken Super Nova car was cleared with two minutes remaining, giving Hulkenberg's rivals a final chance to pull something out of the bag, but no one was able to string a lap together and the rookie's time remained safe.
A few drivers had taken turns at setting quickest times earlier in the session. Racing Engineering's Lucas di Grassi spent the longest spell on top before finally being shuffled back to third, and Javier Villa (Super Nova) also briefly held the fastest time.
Hulkenberg's team-mate Pastor Maldonado will start from fourth ahead of Villa, Fisichella's Andi Zuber and Vitaly Petrov (Addax), while points leader Romain Grosjean could only manage 14th.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Nico Hulkenberg ART 1m38.161s 2. Roldan Rodriguez Piquet 1m38.250s + 0.089s 3. Lucas di Grassi Racing Engineering 1m38.320s + 0.159s 4. Pastor Maldonado ART 1m38.618s + 0.457s 5. Javier Villa Super Nova 1m38.733s + 0.572s 6. Andreas Zuber Fisichella 1m38.852s + 0.691s 7. Vitaly Petrov Addax 1m38.888s + 0.727s 8. Diego Nunes iSport 1m38.924s + 0.763s 9. Alvaro Parente Ocean 1m39.014s + 0.853s 10. Edoardo Mortara Arden 1m39.018s + 0.857s 11. Sergio Perez Arden 1m39.094s + 0.933s 12. Luca Filippi Super Nova 1m39.105s + 0.944s 13. Alberto Valerio Piquet 1m39.114s + 0.953s 14. Romain Grosjean Addax 1m39.122s + 0.961s 15. Kamui Kobayashi DAMS 1m39.301s + 1.140s 16. Karun Chandhok Ocean 1m39.345s + 1.184s 17. Dani Clos Racing Engineering 1m39.354s + 1.193s 18. Michael Herck DPR 1m39.439s + 1.278s 19. Jerome D'Ambrosio DAMS 1m39.441s + 1.280s 20. Davide Valsecchi Durango 1m39.480s + 1.319s 21. Giedo van der Garde iSport 1m39.774s + 1.613s 22. Franck Perera DPR 1m40.509s + 2.348s 23. Rodolfo Gonzalez Trident 1m40.703s + 2.542s 24. Nelson Panciatici Durango 1m40.848s + 2.687s 25. Ricardo Teixeira Trident 1m41.613s + 3.452s 26. Luiz Razia Fisichella 1m41.969s + 3.808s
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