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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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