Pantano storms to Hockenheim pole
Giorgio Pantano produced a lap that his GP2 rivals had absolutely no answer to in qualifying at Hockenheim on Friday afternoon, taking pole by over a quarter of a second
Pantano (Racing Engineering) regards Hockenheim as one of his favourite tracks, and was at the head of the times from the early going until Romain Grosjean (ART) lapped in 1:21.977 - despite tank-slapping across the finish line after running wide at the final corner.
For a while at least, Grosjean headed the times by 1.3 seconds, but Pantano had something in reserve. Halfway through the session the Italian unleashed a 1:21.650, faster than the rest by some three tenths of a second.
Grosjean tried to reassert himself, but ran wide at Turn 1 at his first attempt and only lowered his time to 1:21.934 on his final effort, which wasn't enough.
Andreas Zuber will start third for Piquet Sports, just missing out on the 1:21s club by four thousandths of a second. He was over a tenth clear of Sebastien Buemi (Arden), who was a thousandth quicker than fifth-placed man Lucas di Grassi (Campos).
Title challenger Bruno Senna had a disappointing session for iSport, and his recent streak of poles ended with sixth place, some six tenths off the pace.
Alvaro Parente will start seventh for Super Nova, ahead of Kamui Kobayashi (DAMS) who was unable to repeat his front-running form of free practice.
Javier Villa, who bounced back from an engine problem in practice for Racing Engineering, and Vitaly Petrov (Campos) rounded out the top 10.
Just outside it was Karun Chandhok (iSport) and perhaps the surprise of the session: Sakon Yamamoto (ART) outqualified Luca Filippi (Arden) in the drive Filippi had walked away from.
Pastor Maldonado was 15th for Piquet Sports, after another terribly scrappy session, and Mike Conway was 20th after Trident did a good job of rebuilding his car after he crashed in free practice.
The weather forecast for tomorrow's feature race is rain.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Pantano Racing Engineering 1:21.650 14 2. Grosjean ART Grand Prix 1:21.934 + 0.284 13 3. Zuber Piquet Sports 1:22.004 + 0.354 14 4. Buemi Trust Team Arden 1:22.171 + 0.521 15 5. Di Grassi Barwa Campos Team 1:22.172 + 0.522 14 6. Senna iSport International 1:22.216 + 0.566 16 7. Parente Super Nova Racing 1:22.391 + 0.741 15 8. Kobayashi Dams 1:22.459 + 0.809 17 9. Villa Racing Engineering 1:22.560 + 0.910 16 10. Petrov Barwa Campos Team 1:22.587 + 0.937 12 11. Chandhok iSport International 1:22.759 + 1.109 17 12. Yamamoto ART Grand Prix 1:22.788 + 1.138 17 13. Filippi Trust Team Arden 1:22.802 + 1.152 15 14. D'ambrosio Dams 1:22.907 + 1.257 18 15. Maldonado Piquet Sports 1:22.969 + 1.319 17 16. Soucek Super Nova Racing 1:22.992 + 1.342 17 17. Tung Trident Racing 1:23.264 + 1.614 16 18. Valsecchi Durango 1:23.320 + 1.670 15 19. Valerio Durango 1:23.378 + 1.728 18 20. Conway Trident Racing 1:23.433 + 1.783 19 21. Nunes DPR 1:23.434 + 1.784 14 22. Rodriguez FMS International 1:23.497 + 1.847 15 23. Iaconelli BCN Competicion 1:23.913 + 2.263 16 24. Asmer FMS International 1:24.011 + 2.361 16 25. Valles BCN Competicion 1:24.273 + 2.623 12 26. Herck DPR 1:24.641 + 2.991 16
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