Rossiter on pole for race 2
James Rossiter mastered greasy conditions to take pole position for today's second World Series by Renault race at Zolder
The English Pons driver will share the front row with yesterday's race one winner Eric Salignon.
With the circuit still damp following a morning shower, the stewards decided to revise the qualifying system by splitting the field into two fifteen-car groups in the interest of safety.
Rossiter was drawn into the second B group, with the benefit of a drying track, and put paid to a challenge from Andy Soucek by setting a pole time of 1:33.454 - nearly five seconds faster than Salignon's earlier effort in the A session.
Afterwards, Rossiter was a buoyant mood. "I think I should play the lottery, because things certainly went my way today.
"I could see I was trading P1s with someone although I didn't know at the time it was a Soucek. I decided it was no time to be cautious so I just hit it and on that lap I improved my time by nearly two seconds."
Soucek will start third ahead of Euro International teammates Enrico Toccacelo and Pascal Kochem. Sixth fastest was KTR's Robbie Kerr.
The B session saw a number of incidents at the tricky Villeneuve chicane. The most serious involved Carlin driver Colin Fleming and Victory driver Alvaro Parente.
Fleming was being pushed from the gravel trap by a group of marshals when Parente left the road and collected them.
Although damage to the cars remained light, an unfortunate marshal was lucky not to require more serious medical attention. The clash occurred before either Fleming or Parente had set a competitive time.
Joining them outside the 107% cut-off were Haynari Shimoda and Sean McIntosh, who had an almost identical coming together, as well as Edwin Jowsey and Bruce Jouanny.
RACE 2 GRID:
1. James Rossiter
2. Eric Salignon
3. Andy Soucek
4. Enrico Toccacelo
5. Pascal Kochem
6. Pastor Maldonado
7. Davide Valescchi
8. Borja Garcia
9. Milos Pavlovic
10. Steven Kane
11. Patrick Pilet
12. Robbie Kerr
13. Alvaro Barba
14. Gregory Franchi
15. Christian Montanari
16. Alx Danielsson
17. Ryo Fukuda
18. Matteo Meneghello
19. Tomas Kostka
20. Ben Hanley
21. Michael Aleshin
22. Jerome D'ambrosio
23. Alessandro Bonetti
24. Celso Miguez
QUALIFYING 2 SESSION A RESULTS:
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Eric Salignon Interwetten.Com 1:38.109 8
2. Enrico Toccacelo Eurointernational 1:38.640 + 0.531 9
3. Pastor Maldonado Draco Multiracing USA 1:38.896 + 0.787 9
4. Borja Garcia RC Motorsport 1:38.908 + 0.799 9
5. Steven Kane Epsilon Euskadi 1:39.057 + 0.948 8
6. Robbie Kerr KTR 1:39.737 + 1.628 8
7. Gregory Franchi Prema Powerteam 1:40.098 + 1.989 8
8. Alx Danielsson Comtec 1:40.196 + 2.087 9
9. Matteo Meneghello GD Racing 1:40.435 + 2.326 9
10. Ben Hanley Cram Competition 1:40.672 + 2.563 9
11. Michael Aleshin Carlin Motorsport 1:41.715 + 3.606 9
12. Jerome D'ambrosio Tech 1 Racing 1:42.813 + 4.704 8
13. Alessandro Bonetti Jenzer Motorsport 1:43.890 + 5.781 5
14. Celso Miguez Pons Racing 1:44.384 + 6.275 3
QUALIFYING 2 SESSION B RESULTS:
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. James Rossiter Pons Racing 1:33.454 10
2. Andy Soucek Interwetten.Com 1:34.220 + 0.766 9
3. Pascal Kochem Eurointernational 1:34.602 + 1.148 9
4. Davide Valsecchi Epsilon Euskadi 1:34.603 + 1.149 11
5. Milos Pavlovic Cram Competition 1:34.770 + 1.316 10
6. Patrick Pilet GD Racing 1:35.164 + 1.710 10
7. Alvaro Barba Jenzer Motorsport 1:35.453 + 1.999 10
8. Christian Montanari Prema Powerteam 1:35.471 + 2.017 10
9. Ryo Fukuda Tech 1 Racing 1:35.793 + 2.339 10
10. Tomas Kostka Draco Multiracing USA 1:38.029 + 4.575 7
NOT QUALIFIED:
Driver Team Time Laps
Bruce Jouanny RC Motorsport 1:41.698 + 8.244 8
Edwin Jowsey Comtec 1:43.835 +10.381 8
Hayanari Shimoda Victory Engineering 1:45.234 +11.780 4
Sean McIntosh KTR No Time
Colin Fleming Carlin Motorsport No Time
Alvaro Parente Victory Engineering No Time
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