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Spa GP2: Stoffel Vandoorne beats Jolyon Palmer to take maiden pole

McLaren Formula 1 protege Stoffel Vandoorne claimed pole for Saturday's GP2 feature race at Spa, deposing Jolyon Palmer from the top, despite the Briton leading for most of the session

Palmer managed a 1m56.857s in the first 10 minutes to set the benchmark time, a feat that seemed unassailable throughout as no one was able to improve early on.

Takuya Izawa brought the yellow flags out mere minutes in for a spin into the gravel, helping Palmer maintain his lead.

After a quiet middle stint where only Daniel de Jong seemed to be making any headway, Palmer pitted with a handful of minutes remaining but holding a 0.4s cushion from Raffaele Marciello.

Local hero Vandoorne immediately took the initiative, and did just enough to take his first GP2 pole position and the four points to go with it, setting a time just 0.018s quicker than Palmer.

Palmer's consistency means that he will once again start on the front row, ahead of Mitch Evans and Marciello in third and fourth.

Johnny Cecotto Jr had looked quick all weekend, but will be disappointed with fifth, having challenged for the front row earlier in the day, and Julian Leal, who was fastest in practice, could not better sixth.

Nathanael Berthon, Simon Trummer, Marco Sorensen and Stephane Richelmi completed the front 10 runners.

It was a difficult day for championship contender Felipe Nasr however, as he could not do better than 11th.


Pos Driver               Team                 Time       Gap      Laps
 1. Stoffel Vandoorne    ART                  1m56.839s            10 
 2. Jolyon Palmer        DAMS                 1m56.857s  +0.018s    8 
 3. Mitch Evans          Russian Time         1m57.057s  +0.218s   11 
 4. Raffaele Marciello   Racing Engineering   1m57.237s  +0.398s   13 
 5. Johnny Cecotto Jr    Trident              1m57.244s  +0.405s   12 
 6. Julian Leal          Carlin               1m57.271s  +0.432s   13 
 7. Nathanael Berthon    Lazarus              1m57.272s  +0.433s   12 
 8. Simon Trummer        Rapax                1m57.284s  +0.445s   10 
 9. Marco Sorensen       MP                   1m57.389s  +0.550s   11 
10. Stephane Richelmi    DAMS                 1m57.448s  +0.609s   10 
11. Felipe Nasr          Carlin               1m57.475s  +0.636s   11 
12. Arthur Pic           Campos               1m57.516s  +0.677s   10 
13. Daniel de Jong       MP                   1m57.706s  +0.867s   11 
14. Tom Dillmann         Caterham             1m57.770s  +0.931s   11 
15. Conor Daly           Lazarus              1m57.788s  +0.949s   12 
16. Stefano Coletti      Racing Engineering   1m57.844s  +1.005s   11 
17. Rene Binder          Arden                1m57.851s  +1.012s   12 
18. Daniel Abt           Hilmer               1m57.875s  +1.036s   13 
19. Rio Haryanto         Caterham             1m57.974s  +1.135s   12 
20. Andre Negrao         Arden                1m58.002s  +1.163s   12 
21. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs  Rapax                1m58.005s  +1.166s   12 
22. Kimiya Sato          Campos               1m58.185s  +1.346s   10 
23. Jon Lancaster        Hilmer               1m58.218s  +1.379s   13 
24. Sergio Canamasas     Trident              1m58.295s  +1.456s   12 
25. Artem Markelov       Russian Time         1m58.470s  +1.631s   10 
26. Takuya Izawa         ART                  2m40.364s  +43.525s   2 


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