Petrov dominates Monza qualifying
Vitaly Petrov kept his slim title hopes alive by claiming pole position for tomorrow's GP2 Series feature race at Monza with a dominant performance in qualifying
The Russian's best lap of 1m30.007s came relatively early in the session, and with an advantage of almost half a second over the rest of the field, the Addax driver was able to spend the final 10 minutes on the pitwall watching the others try to catch him. No one came close - the nearest challenger was iSport's Giedo van der Garde, and even he fell 0.391s short.
Points leader Nico Hulkenberg (ART) will start just behind Petrov in third after a relatively subdued afternoon, with fellow rookie Sergio Perez alongside him on the second row for Arden.
With most of the quick times being set in the opening minutes, it was not a session that will be remembered as one of the season's more exciting, although Ocean's Alvaro Parente did his bit to inject some late fun by grabbing too much kerb at Roggia and spinning with two laps remaining.
Newcomer Johnny Cecotto Jr will make his GP2 debut with DPR from a respectable 16th on the grid.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Vitaly Petrov Addax 1m30.007s 2. Giedo van der Garde iSport 1m30.398s + 0.391s 3. Nico Hulkenberg ART 1m30.436s + 0.429s 4. Sergio Perez Arden 1m30.460s + 0.453s 5. Lucas di Grassi Racing Engineering 1m30.504s + 0.497s 6. Pastor Maldonado ART 1m30.596s + 0.589s 7. Roldan Rodriguez Piquet 1m30.634s + 0.627s 8. Diego Nunes iSport 1m30.729s + 0.722s 9. Davide Valsecchi Addax 1m30.768s + 0.761s 10. Andreas Zuber Coloni 1m30.803s + 0.796s 11. Javier Villa Super Nova 1m30.831s + 0.824s 12. Alberto Valerio Piquet 1m30 911s + 0.904s 13. Davide Rigon Trident 1m30.922s + 0.915s 14. Dani Clos Racing Engineering 1m31.021s + 1.014s 15. Luca Filippi Super Nova 1m31.024s + 1.017s 16. Johnny Cecotto DPR 1m31.080s + 1.073s 17. Luiz Razia Coloni 1m31.112s + 1.105s 18. Alvaro Parente Ocean 1m31.160s + 1.153s 19. Kamui Kobayashi DAMS 1m31.303s + 1.296s 20 Karun Chandhok Ocean 1m31.325s + 1.318s 21. Michael Herck DPR 1m31.347s + 1.340s 22. Jerome d'Ambrosio DAMS 1m31.455s + 1.448s 23. Edoardo Mortara Arden 1m31.887s + 1.880s 24. Ricardo Teixeira Trident 1m32.640s + 2.633s
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