Aleshin clinches maiden F2 pole
Mikhail Aleshin claimed his maiden Formula 2 pole position in a drying qualifying session at Oschersleben this morning
The 22-year-old Russian set a series of stunning laps in the slippery conditions as the times tumbled in the closing minutes of the half hour.
His final effort, a 1m22.131s, was a full six tenths of a second quicker than anyone else.
The drivers all started the session on wet tyres, but switched to dry half way through and the times instantly fell by four seconds. The track continued to get quicker with every lap as Alex Brundle, Aleshin and Soucek lowered the bar second by second.
Soucek was first into the 1m24s, but Aleshin soon followed with a 1m23s. Mirko Bortolotti then pinched the top time briefly with a 1m23.0s, until Aleshin, Julien Jousse and Soucek all broke into the 1m22s.
Jousse and Soucek ended up second and third on 1m22.7s, while Bortolotti will complete the second row of the grid with his 1m23.0s.
Robert Wickens and Alex Brundle will share the third row of the grid, after each spent a few seconds at the top of the timesheet in the closing minutes.
Nicola de Marco, Tobias Hegewald, Sebastian Hohenthal and Jason Moore completed the top 10, Moore driving despite sustaining a hand injury during an off in qualifying yesterday.
The session was stopped by a red flag just seven minutes in, when Jack Clarke spun off at Turn 3 and Jolyon Palmer at Turn 6.
Any opportunity for further improvements in the last mintue was denied when qualifying was ended early after Natacha Gachnang spun off.
Pos Driver Time Gap 1. Mikhail Aleshin 1m22.131s 2. Julien Jousse 1m22.763s +0.632 3. Andy Soucek 1m22.777s +0.646 4. Mirko Bortolotti 1m23.083s +0.952 5. Robert Wickens 1m23.223s +1.092 6. Alex Brundle 1m23.268s +1.137 7. Nicola de Marco 1m23.380s +1.249 8. Tobias Hegewald 1m23.396s +1.265 9. Sebastian Hohenthal 1m23.417s +1.286 10. Jason Moore 1m23.586s +1.455 11. Kazim Vasiliauskas 1m24.074s +1.943 12. Natacha Gachnang 1m24.349s +2.218 13. Jens Hoing 1m24.354s +2.223 14. Edoardo Piscopo 1m25.714s +3.583 15. Carlos Iaconelli 1m26.207s +4.076 16. Henri Karjalainen 1m26.240s +4.109 17. Armaan Ebrahim 1m26.366s +4.235 18. Ollie Hancock 1m26.463s +4.332 19. German Sanchez 1m27.471s +5.340 20. Pietro Gandolfi 1m29.730s +7.599 21. Tom Gladdis 1m31.979s +9.848 22. Philipp Eng 1m32.280s +10.149 23. Milos Pavlovic 1m34.157s +12.026 24. Jolyon Palmer 1m46.523s +24.392 25. Jack Clarke 1m48.361s +26.230
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