Wickens on pole at Barcelona
Robert Wickens will start the penultimate Formula 2 race of the season from pole position after going quickest in the first qualifying session at Barcelona
The 20-year-old Canadian trailed new champion Andy Soueck during the early stages, but leapt to the head of the field with 10 minutes remaining as the Spaniard and Mikhail Aleshin each tried their hardest to re-take the top spot.
They failed, and Wickens then rubbed salt into their wounds by improving his time by three tenths of a second to take his fourth pole of the season in 1m39.020s.
Behind fellow front-row man Soucek, Nicola de Marco leapt up to third on his final flying lap, equalling his career best qualifying and demoting Aleshin to fourth.
Formula Palmer Audi graduate Tristan Vautier was a superb fifth quickest ahead of his series debut, ahead of Julien Jousse, Philipp Eng and Mirko Bortolotti, whose hopes of claiming second in the championship, ahead of Wickens, seem severely compromised.
British driver Jack Clarke caused the only red flag of the session after four minutes. His car became beached in a gravel trap after a spin. Ollie Hancock pulled his car off the track at Turn Four at the same time.
Pos Driver Time Gap 1. Robert Wickens 1m39.020s 2. Andy Soucek 1m39.268s + 0.248s 3. Nicola de Marco 1m39.416s + 0.396s 4. Mikhail Aleshin 1m39.426s + 0.406s 5. Tristan Vautier 1m39.446s + 0.426s 6. Julien Jousse 1m39.502s + 0.482s 7. Philipp Eng 1m39.511s + 0.491s 8. Mirko Bortolotti 1m39.654s + 0.634s 9. Natacha Gachnang 1m39.660s + 0.640s 10. Kazim Vasiliauskas 1m39.707s + 0.687s 11. Milos Pavlovic 1m39.721s + 0.701s 12. Tobias Hegewald 1m39.847s + 0.827s 13. Jason Moore 1m39.955s + 0.935s 14. Jolyon Palmer 1m40.022s + 1.002s 15. Armaan Ebrahim 1m40.042s + 1.022s 16. Jens Hoing 1m40.396s + 1.376s 17. Henri Karjalainen 1m40.529s + 1.509s 18. Tom Gladdis 1m40.541s + 1.521s 19. German Sanchez 1m40.720s + 1.700s 20. Sebastian Hohenthal 1m40.956s + 1.936s 21. Alex Brundle 1m41.036s + 2.016s 22. Ollie Hancock 1m41.770s + 2.750s 23. Pietro Gandolfi 1m42.361s + 3.341s 24. Jack Clarke
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