Hulkenberg takes emphatic pole
Nico Hulkenberg will start tomorrow's GP2 feature race from pole position after another dominant performance in qualifying in Valencia this afternoon
As expected, the session was fought out between the ART driver and Vitaly Petrov, his main title rival. Hulkenberg set his marker early on, but with an advantage of less than 0.1s over the Russian, the top place on the grid was far from secure.
After stopping for fresh tyres, Petrov made his move with eight minutes remaining and was on what was shaping up to be a good lap when he went off the circuit. He rejoined, but suspicions that something was amiss were confirmed when he drove straight back into pitlane and climbed out of the car.
Adding to Petrov's misery, Hulkenberg chose that moment to strike, producing a 1m45.025s effort that was a full 0.4s quicker than the now-neutralised Petrov's best time, and well beyond the reach of anyone else.
Racing Engineering's Lucas di Grassi was third-fastest and provided some late entertainment by breaking down on his in-lap at the end of the session, while Sergio Perez achieved his best GP2 qualifying result to date with fourth.
The session was interrupted by a stoppage 12 minutes before the end after Super Nova's Luca Filippi clouted the barriers at Turn 12 and tore most of the left-hand side off his car. The Italian was unhurt, although the combination of damage to the barriers and pools of oil on the track meant several minutes under red flags to allow for a clean-up.
Durango's debutant Stefano Coletti finally managed to complete his first laps in a GP2 car after losing this morning's session to a gearbox problem, and the Monegasque will start from the back row alongside iSport's Giedo van der Garde, whose afternoon was cut short when he brushed the wall and bent his suspension.
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Nico Hulkenberg ART 1m45.025s 2. Vitaly Petrov Barwa Addax 1m45.450s 3. Lucas di Grassi Racing Engineering 1m45.654s 4. Sergio Perez Arden 1m45.669s 5. Roldan Rodriguez Piquet 1m45.758s 6. Alvaro Parente Ocean 1m45.902s 7. Dani Clos Racing Engineering 1m46.040s 8. Karun Chandhok Ocean 1m46.063s 9. Pastor Maldonado ART 1m46.086s 10. Diego Nunes iSport 1m46.204s 11. Javier Villa Super Nova 1m46.264s 12. Davide Valsecchi Barwa Addax 1m46.408s 13. Edoardo Mortara Arden 1m46.497s 14. Luca Filippi Super Nova 1m46.545s 15. Michael Herck DPR 1m46.648s 16. Andi Zuber Coloni 1m46.740s 17. Jerome d'Ambrosio DAMS 1m46.745s 18. Alberto Valerio Piquet 1m46.748s 19. Davide Rigon Trident 1m46.826s 20 Kamui Kobayashi DAMS 1m46.850s 21. Frank Perera DPR 1m46.945s 22. Luiz Razia Coloni 1m47.089s 23. Nelson Panciatici Durango 1m47.843s 24. Ricardo Teixeira Trident 1m48.155s 25 Stefano Coletti Durango 1m49.296s 26. Giedo van der Garde iSport 1m51.855s
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