Grosjean takes pole at Silverstone
Romain Grosjean's efforts to get his GP2 title campaign back on track received a boost during qualifying at Silverstone this afternoon when he took pole for tomorrow's feature race
The Frenchman first moved to the top of the timesheets with a 1m26.535s effort in the opening minutes, but was immediately overhauled by his Barwa Addax team-mate Vitaly Petrov.
Grosjean took the place back with his next flying lap only to immediately lose it again, this time to Piquet GP's Alberto Valerio. That time stood until the final five minutes, when Grosjean was able to find enough clear air to bang out a 1m25.899s, and this time it was enough to keep him on top.
Valerio held on for second ahead of Ocean's Alvaro Parente and DAMS' Jerome D'Ambrosio, who was on target for a front row start until he got caught in traffic during the final sector. Racing Engineering's Lucas di Grassi will start from fifth, with Petrov completing the third row.
As with this morning's practice session there were a few on-track incidents to liven things up, the most noteworthy being the two Trident entries managing to hit each other on their out-lap.
Davide Rigon was spun around in the clash but was able to continue, while team-mate Ricardo Teixeira was forced to watch from the sidelines after breaking his front wing. Arden's Sergio Perez and Piquet's Roldan Rodriguez also stopped on the side of the track before completing a lap.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Romain Grosjean Addax 1m25.899s 2. Alberto Valerio Piquet 1m26.103s + 0.204s 3. Alvaro Parente Ocean 1m26.162s + 0.263s 4. Jerome D'Ambrosio DAMS 1m26.317s + 0.418s 5. Lucas di Grassi Racing Engineering 1m26.370s + 0.471s 6. Vitaly Petrov Addax 1m26.381s + 0.482s 7. Nico Hulkenberg ART 1m26.406s + 0.507s 8. Javier Villa Super Nova 1m26.678s + 0.779s 9. Pastor Maldonado ART 1m26.723s + 0.824s 10. Kamui Kobayashi DAMS 1m26.747s + 0.848s 11. Diego Nunes iSport 1m26.831s + 0.932s 12. Karun Chandhok Ocean 1m26.842s + 0.943s 13. Dani Clos Racing Engineering 1m26.927s + 1.028s 14. Davide Rigon Trident 1m27.086s + 1.187s 15. Davide Valsecchi Durango 1m27.105s + 1.206s 16. Andreas Zuber Fisichella 1m27.106s + 1.207s 17. Giedo van der Garde iSport 1m27.135s + 1.236s 18. Luca Filippi Super Nova 1m27.379s + 1.480s 19. Edoardo Mortara Arden 1m27.494s + 1.595s 20. Michael Herck DPR 1m27.598s + 1.699s 21. Nelson Panciatici Durango 1m28.014s + 2.115s 22. Giacomo Ricci DPR 1m28.043s + 2.144s 23. Luiz Razia Fisichella 1m28.789s + 2.890s 24. Roldan Rodriguez Piquet 25. Ricardo Teixeira Trident 26. Sergio Perez Arden
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