GP2 Bahrain: Pierre Gasly beats Stoffel Vandoorne to pole position
Red Bull junior Pierre Gasly shaded McLaren Formula 1 reserve Stoffel Vandoorne to claim his second GP2 pole position in Bahrain
2015 champion Vandoorne sat at the top of the times for the bulk of the 30-minute session, as the only man below the 1m40s barrier with his time of 1m39.957s.
He improved with four minutes remaining to a 1m39.612s lap, only to be eclipsed by DAMS driver Gasly moments later.
With his 1m39.572s effort, Gasly secured pole from Vandoorne by just 0.040 seconds.
In the flurry of late times, Raffaele Marciello and Alex Lynn jumped up to third and fourth, 0.076s and 0.089s shy of pole respectively.
Jordan King will line up fifth, while his Racing Engineering team-mate Alexander Rossi will start ninth, six tenths off the pace.
Having led practice on Thursday morning, Rossi was only 16th after his first run, and improved to fifth on his second effort, but he was demoted in the final minutes.
Norman Nato will start sixth, having been Vandoorne's closest challenger for much of the session, ahead of Mitch Evans and Nobuharu Matsushita, while Arthur Pic completes the top 10 behind Rossi.
Formula Renault 3.5 champion Oliver Rowland was 18th fastest in his first qualifying session with Status Grand Prix, marginally behind team-mate Marlon Stockinger.
On his return from injury, Daniel De Jong will start 21st.
QUALIFYING RESULT
Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Pierre Gasly | DAMS | 1m39.572s | - | 11 |
2 | Stoffel Vandoorne | ART Grand Prix | 1m39.612s | 0.040s | 11 |
3 | Raffaele Marciello | Trident | 1m39.648s | 0.076s | 12 |
4 | Alex Lynn | DAMS | 1m39.661s | 0.089s | 11 |
5 | Jordan King | Racing Engineering | 1m39.902s | 0.330s | 11 |
6 | Norman Nato | Arden International | 1m40.004s | 0.432s | 11 |
7 | Mitch Evans | RUSSIAN TIME | 1m40.027s | 0.455s | 11 |
8 | Nobuharu Matsushita | ART Grand Prix | 1m40.079s | 0.507s | 12 |
9 | Alexander Rossi | Racing Engineering | 1m40.141s | 0.569s | 11 |
10 | Arthur Pic | Campos Racing | 1m40.176s | 0.604s | 11 |
11 | Rio Haryanto | Campos Racing | 1m40.212s | 0.640s | 12 |
12 | Artem Markelov | RUSSIAN TIME | 1m40.354s | 0.782s | 11 |
13 | Rene Binder | MP Motorsport | 1m40.367s | 0.795s | 11 |
14 | Sergey Sirotkin | Rapax | 1m40.539s | 0.967s | 10 |
15 | Nathanael Berthon | Daiko Team Lazarus | 1m40.571s | 0.999s | 11 |
16 | Sergio Canamasas | Daiko Team Lazarus | 1m40.588s | 1.016s | 12 |
17 | Marlon Stockinger | Status Grand Prix | 1m40.650s | 1.078s | 11 |
18 | Oliver Rowland | Status Grand Prix | 1m40.720s | 1.148s | 10 |
19 | Dean Stoneman | Carlin | 1m41.106s | 1.534s | 11 |
20 | Nicholas Latifi | MP Motorsport | 1m41.145s | 1.573s | 11 |
21 | Daniel de Jong | Trident | 1m41.208s | 1.636s | 12 |
22 | Andre Negrao | Arden International | 1m41.432s | 1.860s | 11 |
23 | Gustav Malja | Rapax | 1m41.775s | 2.203s | 11 |
24 | Sean Gelael | Carlin | 1m42.840s | 3.268s | 11 |
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