GP2 Spa: Giovinazzi snatches pole from Prema team-mate Gasly
Antonio Giovinazzi snatched Spa GP2 pole from Prema team-mate Pierre Gasly in the closing moments of qualifying, while championship leader Sergey Sirotkin ended up 13th
Gasly had been on provisional pole after the first runs with a 1m57.068s, and then improved to 1m56.768s later in the half-hour session.
That initially looked like it would be enough, but rookie Giovinazzi produced a lap 0.161 seconds faster to steal pole away, as Prema took its first front-row sweep in GP2.
Gusta Malja went out earlier than most for his second runs and it paid off as he jumped to a temporary second before ending up a career-best third for Rapax.
Racing Engineering team-mates Norman Nato and Jordan King were next up, followed by Malja's stablemate Arthur Pic.
Raffaele Marciello, Alex Lynn, Nobuharu Matsushita and Marvin Kirchhofer completed the top 10.
Sirotkin's session didn't begin well, as he ran wide on his first flying lap and then had a huge lock-up into the Bus Stop on his second.
That left him 12th, which became a lowly 16th as others improved.
He jumped back to seventh when he came back out for another run, only to be pushed down to 13th by the flag.
Oliver Rowland's session followed a similar pattern and he ended up 15th.
QUALIFYING TIMES
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Prema Racing | 1m56.607s | - |
| 2 | Pierre Gasly | Prema Racing | 1m56.768s | 0.161s |
| 3 | Gustav Malja | Rapax | 1m57.124s | 0.517s |
| 4 | Norman Nato | Racing Engineering | 1m57.211s | 0.604s |
| 5 | Jordan King | Racing Engineering | 1m57.411s | 0.804s |
| 6 | Arthur Pic | Rapax | 1m57.462s | 0.855s |
| 7 | Raffaele Marciello | RUSSIAN TIME | 1m57.512s | 0.905s |
| 8 | Alex Lynn | DAMS | 1m57.658s | 1.051s |
| 9 | Nobuharu Matsushita | ART Grand Prix | 1m57.665s | 1.058s |
| 10 | Marvin Kirchhofer | Carlin | 1m57.750s | 1.143s |
| 11 | Nicholas Latifi | DAMS | 1m57.768s | 1.161s |
| 12 | Artem Markelov | RUSSIAN TIME | 1m57.906s | 1.299s |
| 13 | Sergey Sirotkin | ART Grand Prix | 1m57.927s | 1.320s |
| 14 | Luca Ghiotto | Trident | 1m57.964s | 1.357s |
| 15 | Oliver Rowland | MP Motorsport | 1m57.987s | 1.380s |
| 16 | Sergio Canamasas | Carlin | 1m58.165s | 1.558s |
| 17 | Sean Gelael | Pertamina Campos Racing | 1m58.252s | 1.645s |
| 18 | Daniel de Jong | MP Motorsport | 1m58.342s | 1.735s |
| 19 | Mitch Evans | Pertamina Campos Racing | 1m58.386s | 1.779s |
| 20 | Jimmy Eriksson | Arden International | 1m58.674s | 2.067s |
| 21 | Nabil Jeffri | Arden International | 1m59.292s | 2.685s |
| 22 | Philo Paz Armand | Trident | 1m59.577s | 2.970s |
Previous article
GP2 Spa: Sergey Sirotkin heads Pierre Gasly in free practice
Next article
GP2 Spa: Red Bull junior Gasly storms clear in title race with win
Was Formula 2’s radical format switch a success?
Going into the 2021 Formula 2 season the biggest talking point wasn’t about any drivers or teams, but the new race weekend format. Created partly out of financial necessity but also to spice up the action, the Bahrain opener provided a snapshot of the positives and negatives to come
Why 2021 is make-or-break for the driver F1 needs
He was tipped for glory in FIA Formula 2 last year, but was hampered by reliability woes at inopportune moments. Guanyu Zhou knows he won't get too many more chances if he is to become China's first F1 driver, with fierce competition within the ranks of Alpine's junior stable
How Schumacher Jr earned his Haas F1 chance
Michael Schumacher may have won seven Formula 1 titles, but he didn't even compete for a crown at the second tier. Son Mick put that right in 2020, and proved to Ferrari that he was deserving of a shot at motorsport's elite category in 2021
The quintet giving Ferrari a tough decision to make
The Ferrari Driver Academy earned a podium sweep in the first Formula 2 race of the new decade in Austria last weekend. The battle between 'the FDA five' is set to be one of the major subplots of the season, but who has the best F1 prospects for 2021?
The Williams junior determined to prove Red Bull wrong
Dropped by his team in Japan and by Red Bull, Dan Ticktum's single-seater career seemed to be over last summer. But now he's on the Formula 2 grid with the reigning champion team, and he's a new protege of Williams. How did that happen?
The controversial weekend that ended an American's dream in Europe
OPINION: In the latest in our series of features looking back the recently concluded 2010s, we recall one of the many sagas of the 2018 Formula 2 season, which featured unusual fines and an unsavoury clash between team-mates
The year Leclerc fully revealed his star status
In the latest feature in our series looking back on the 2010s, we revisit Charles Leclerc's sensational Formula 2 season - where he strode among on-track highs and lows, as well as tragedy away from motorsport, to earn a place on the Formula 1 grid
Why F1 is no longer ignoring its feeder series
After the MotoGP-style Formula 1 support ladder was fully united for 2019, Bruno Michel and Ross Brawn share their views on the current state of Formula 2 and FIA Formula 3 and explain why investment at junior levels should boost the top tier
