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Johnny Cecotto takes maiden GP2 pole in Monaco

Johnny Cecotto took a shock maiden GP2 pole position in qualifying for the Monaco feature race

The Addax driver had never previously qualified higher than fifth and is yet to finish on the podium in over two seasons of GP2.

But he proved his fastest time in morning practice was no fluke as he blasted to a 1m21.195s lap at the end of the second part of the split qualifying session.

Carlin's Max Chilton was fastest in the first group and will share the front row with Cecotto.

Caterham driver Giedo van der Garde had looked set to top group one as he dominated much of the session with a series of ever-faster laps. But his eventual 1m21.475s proved insufficient when Chilton came through with a 1m21.320s right at the end.

Chilton appeared secure in pole for a spell as the early group two times were some way off his benchmark. Then iSport's Marcus Ericsson produced a 1m21.249s lap to not only blitz his group two rivals, but depose Chilton from outright pole.

Red flags flew soon afterwards when Rodolfo Gonzalez (Caterham) crashed at the Swimming Pool entrance. There were just over two minutes left on the clocks at the restart, and that proved to be sufficient time for Cecotto to beat Ericsson by 0.149 seconds, pushing the Swede back to third.

Ericsson will share row two with van der Garde, while title contenders Luiz Razia (Arden) and Davide Valsecchi (DAMS) line up fifth and seventh, split by Ericsson's team-mate Jolyon Palmer.

Pos  Driver               Team                Time       Session
 1.  Johnny Cecotto       Addax               1m21.195s  Group 2
 2.  Max Chilton          Carlin              1m21.320s  Group 1
 3.  Marcus Ericsson      iSport              1m21.249s  Group 2
 4.  Giedo van der Garde  Caterham            1m21.475s  Group 1
 5.  Luiz Razia           Arden               1m21.858s  Group 2
 6.  Jolyon Palmer        iSport              1m21.530s  Group 1
 7.  Davide Valsecchi     DAMS                1m21.912s  Group 2
 8.  Josef Kral           Addax               1m21.776s  Group 1
 9.  Fabio Leimer         Racing Engineering  1m22.053s  Group 2
10.  Esteban Gutierrez    Lotus               1m21.796s  Group 1
11.  Tom Dillmann         Rapax               1m22.288s  Group 2
12.  Stefano Coletti      Coloni              1m22.174s  Group 1
13.  James Calado         Lotus               1m22.598s  Group 2
14.  Stephane Richelmi    Trident             1m22.326s  Group 1
15.  Julian Leal          Trident             1m22.762s  Group 2
16.  Nathanael Berthon    Racing Engineering  1m22.475s  Group 1
17.  Rodolfo Gonzalez     Caterham            1m22.873s  Group 2
18.  Felipe Nasr          DAMS                1m22.650s  Group 1
19.  Nigel Melker         Ocean               1m22.996s  Group 2
20.  Simon Trummer        Arden               1m22.997s  Group 1
21.  Fabio Onidi          Coloni              1m23.020s  Group 2
22.  Fabrizio Crestani    Lazarus             1m23.193s  Group 1
23.  Rio Haryanto         Carlin              1m23.539s  Group 2
24.  Victor Guerin        Ocean               1m23.792s  Group 1
25.  Giancarlo Serenelli  Lazarus             1m25.907s  Group 2
26.  Ricardo Teixeira     Rapax               1m25.661s  Group 1

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