Barcelona GP2: Gasly beats Nato for first pole of 2016
Red Bull junior Pierre Gasly took the first pole position for the new GP2 Series campaign at Barcelona, beating countryman Norman Nato late in qualifying.
Photo by: GP2 Series Media Service
It was Gasly's third consecutive pole in the series and his fourth from the last five qualifying sessions.
While spots of rain fell at the start of the 30-minute session, conditions were never bad enough to warrant anything other than the use of slick tyres, with the majority of runners leaving it late to set their best times.
Having set the pace in practice, Prema driver Gasly led the field after the opening runs on a 1m28.795s, holding an advantage of three tenths over nearest challenger Oliver Rowland.
But Sergey Sirotkin chose to make his second run earlier than the rest of the frontrunners, appearing to gamble on more rain later in the session, duly taking the top spot with a 1m28.655s.
The Russian’s reign atop the timesheets was not to last, however, as the rain stayed away, Alex Lynn grabbing provisional pole on a 1m28.458s with six minutes to go, only to be promptly beaten by Nato by two tenths.
But Gasly reasserted his authority shortly afterwards with a 1m27.807s, a full 0.464s up on Racing Engineering driver Nato.
Lynn and DAMS teammate Nicholas Latifi make up the second row, with Sirotkin demoted to fifth in the final reckoning ahead of Rapax rookie Gustav Malja, Rowland and Nobuharu Matsushita – who adopted a similar strategy to fellow ART driver Sirotkin, only to be blocked towards the end of his lap.
Completing the top 10 were Artem Markelov and Luca Ghiotto, with Gasly’s Prema teammate Antonio Giovinazzi taking 11th on the grid for his series debut.
Mitch Evans, meanwhile, had a dismal time on his first outing with Campos, qualifying down in 18th place and 1.6s off the pace of Gasly.
Qualifying results
Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Gap |
1 | Pierre Gasly | Prema Racing | 1:27.807 | |
2 | Norman Nato | Racing Engineering | 1:28.271 | 0.464 |
3 | Alex Lynn | DAMS | 1:28.458 | 0.651 |
4 | Nicholas Latifi | DAMS | 1:28.563 | 0.756 |
5 | Sergey Sirotkin | ART Grand Prix | 1:28.655 | 0.848 |
6 | Gustav Malja | Rapax | 1:28.695 | 0.888 |
7 | Oliver Rowland | MP Motorsport | 1:28.807 | 1.000 |
8 | Artem Markelov | Russian Time | 1:29.129 | 1.322 |
9 | Luca Ghiotto | Trident | 1:29.143 | 1.336 |
10 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Prema Racing | 1:29.163 | 1.356 |
11 | Nobuharu Matsushita* | ART Grand Prix | 1:29.128 | 1.321 |
12 | Raffaele Marciello | Russian Time | 1:29.274 | 1.467 |
13 | Jordan King | Racing Engineering | 1:29.322 | 1.515 |
14 | Arthur Pic | Rapax | 1:29.385 | 1.578 |
15 | Sergio Canamasas | Carlin | 1:29.397 | 1.590 |
16 | Marvin Kirchhofer | Carlin | 1:29.440 | 1.633 |
17 | Daniel de Jong | MP Motorsport | 1:29.464 | 1.657 |
18 | Mitch Evans | Pertamina Campos Racing | 1:29.478 | 1.671 |
19 | Jimmy Eriksson | Arden International | 1:29.942 | 2.135 |
20 | Nabil Jeffri | Arden International | 1:30.254 | 2.447 |
21 | Philo Paz Armand | Trident | 1:30.609 | 2.802 |
22 | Sean Gelael* | Pertamina Campos Racing | 1:30.304 | 2.497 |
*Matsushita and Sean Gelael both received 3-place grid penalties for impeding other drivers and the duo will start from 11th and the pit lane respectively.
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments