Mirko Bortolotti captures pole for final race of 2011
Mirko Bortolotti continued his imperious form at Barcelona to take pole position - his third straight and ninth of the season - for the final Formula 2 race of the year
Strategy again played a part, with Bortolotti setting one sighter lap before pulling in, changing tyres and waiting for clean air.
This time he was shadowed though by Ramon Pineiro and Jack Clarke, who also opted to run in the middle of the session. It was Pineiro who came closest to Bortolotti, getting within one quarter of a second of the Italian's benchmark.
With half the session gone the trio had therefore set their best times, but still had to wait for the rest of the field to complete their own fresh rubber, overboost-assisted runs.
With six minutes to go the possibility of Bortolotti losing pole arose as Mihai Marinescu and then Miki Monras either matched or bettered his Sector 1 time.
Neither driver was able to stay ahead in S2 or S3 however, with Monras having to settle for third and Marinescu fourth.
Behind then Kelvin Snoeks sealed fifth, his best qualifying of the year, ahead of Alex Brundle, who had also opted for an early run during the session.
Tobias Hegewald, Mikkel Mac and Christopher Zanella rounded out the top nine, while Benjamin Lariche improved at the close to displace Clarke from the top 10.
Pos Driver Time Gap 1. Mirko Bortolotti 1m37.325s 2. Ramon Pineiro 1m37.550s + 0.225s 3. Miki Monras 1m37.555s + 0.230s 4. Mihai Marinescu 1m37.592s + 0.267s 5. Kelvin Snoeks 1m38.325s + 1.000s 6. Alex Brundle 1m38.432s + 1.107s 7. Tobias Hegewald 1m38.534s + 1.209s 8. Mikkel Mac 1m38.538s + 1.213s 9. Christopher Zanella 1m38.661s + 1.336s 10. Benjamin Lariche 1m38.667s + 1.342s 11. Jack Clarke 1m38.719s + 1.394s 12. James Cole 1m38.788s + 1.463s 13. Thiemo Storz 1m39.039s + 1.714s 14. Sunghak Mun 1m39.177s + 1.852s 15. Parthiva Sureshwaren 1m39.459s + 2.134s 16. Maxim Snegirev 1m39.561s + 2.236s 17. Plamen Kralev 1m39.943s + 2.618s 18. Jose Luis Abadin 1m40.278s + 2.953s
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