McIntosh takes maiden pole
Sean McIntosh looks set to end his season on a high after taking his first World Series pole position at Barcelona
The Canadian managed to start his last flying lap moments before the chequered flag, and his all-out effort eclipsed Alx Danielsson's best by two hundredths of a second. Alvaro Parente joins McIntosh on the front row after topping his qualifying group for the second day running.
Danielsson was best placed of the championship protagonists in third, with the fast but unpredictable Pastor Maldonado starting alongside. McIntosh's KTR teammate Robbie Kerr underlined the strides the team have made in recent races by taking fifth spot, after being slowed by illness yesterday.
"It's a good way to end the season," said McIntosh. "Obviously we've still got the race to go, but as long as the pit-stops go smoothly we're looking good. There was a full course yellow at the end of the session and then I got three real flyers in. Finally, I was able to edge over the right side of Alx's times."
Briton Robbie Kerr is also confident of a strong showing. "I was sick yesterday, so I was extremely thankful of the extra hour in bed this morning," said Kerr. "I had a little oversteer today, but still managed to get a lap in. I'll try and do Sean at the start."
Borja Garcia, third in the championship, will start sixth. The A session in which Garcia was competing was interrupted twice by red flags. The last incident, caused by Alvaro Barba and Nil Montserrat's off track excursions, cut short the session prematurely with a minute to go.
Andy Soucek could only manage ninth quickest, and needs to make urgent progress in the race if he is to hold on to his championship lead.
Qualifying group A times: Pos Driver Team Time 1. Pastor Maldonado Draco 1:27.510 2. Alvaro Parente Victory 1:27.536 + 0.026 3. Borja García RC 1:27.676 + 0.166 4. Franck Perera Interwetten 1:27.715 + 0.205 5. James Rossiter Pons 1:27.715 + 0.205 6. Celso Miguez Comtec 1:27.806 + 0.296 7. C.Montanari Prema 1:27.886 + 0.376 8. Tristan Gommendy Pons 1:28.047 + 0.537 9. Alvaro Barba Jenzer 1:28.130 + 0.620 10. Patrick Pilet Tech 1 1:28.165 + 0.655 11. Benjamin Hanley Cram 1:28.572 + 1.062 12. Marco Barba Jenzer 1:29.037 + 1.527 13. Davide Valsecchi Epsilon 1:29.105 + 1.595 14. P.Di Sabatino Cram 1:29.498 + 1.988 15. Nil Montserrat EuroInternational 1:30.523 + 3.013 Qualifying group B times: Pos Driver Team Time 1. Sean McIntosh KTR 1:27.115 2. Alx Danielsson Comtec 1:27.137 + 0.022 3. Robbie Kerr KTR 1:27.666 + 0.551 4. Adrian Zaugg Carlin 1:27.686 + 0.571 5. Andy Soucek Interwetten 1:27.826 + 0.711 6. Milos Pavlovic Draco 1:27.978 + 0.863 7. Ryo Fukuda Tech 1 1:28.184 + 1.069 8. Michael Aleshin Carlin 1:28.512 + 1.397 9. Steven Kane Epsilon 1:28.558 + 1.443 10. Greg Franchi Prema 1:28.582 + 1.467 11. Bruce Jouanny RC 1:28.661 + 1.546 12. Oliver Jarvis Victory 1:28.928 + 1.813 13. Alberto Valerio EuroInternational 1:29.306 + 2.191 14. Carlos Iaconelli GD Racing 1:29.564 + 2.449 15. Miguel Molina GD Racing 1:30.345 + 3.230 Starting positions: Pos Driver Team 1. Sean McIntosh KTR 2. Pastor Maldonado Draco 3. Alx Danielsson Comtec 4. Alvaro Parente Victory 5. Robbie Kerr KTR 6. Borja García RC 7. Adrian Zaugg Carlin 8. Franck Perera Interwetten 9. Andy Soucek Interwetten 10. James Rossiter Pons 11. Milos Pavlovic Draco 12. Celso Miguez Comtec 13. Ryo Fukuda Tech 1 14. C.Montanari Prema 15. Michael Aleshin Carlin 16. Tristan Gommendy Pons 17. Steven Kane Epsilon 18. Alvaro Barba Jenzer 19. Greg Franchi Prema 20. Patrick Pilet Tech 1 21. Bruce Jouanny RC 22. Benjamin Hanley Cram 23. Oliver Jarvis Victory 24. Marco Barba Jenzer 25. Alberto Valerio EuroInternational 26. Davide Valsecchi Epsilon 27. Carlos Iaconelli GD 28. P.Di Sabatino Cram 29. Miguel Molina GD 30. Nil Montserrat EuroInternational
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