Home Formula 2 Cecotto claims pole in close GP2 qualifying at Spielberg

Cecotto claims pole in close GP2 qualifying at Spielberg

by Gruz David
Johnny Cecotto

Photo: Sam Bloxham/GP2 Series Media Service

Johnny Cecotto Jr took the pole position for the first ever GP2 race to be held at Spielberg.

The Venezuelan was leading at halfway point, when the drivers went into the pits to change tyres, and kept his lead during the second stint of the qualifying despite being unable to improve.

A spin on his final lap forced championship leader Jolyon Palmer out of contention for the pole and made him settle with second, being beaten by only 0.04s.

Palmer shared his fate with Felipe Nasr, whose last minute improvement was only enough for third, losing out by only six thousandths of a second.

The next three positions were also decided by a very close margain, with Racing Engineering duo Stefano Coletti and Raffaele Marciello taking fourth and fifth respectively, followed by McLaren junior Stoffel Vandoorne.

Arthur Pic continued his consistent top ten performances by qualifying seventh, as the top ten was completed by Mitch Evans, Alexander Rossi and Stephane Richelmi.

UPDATE: Hilmer’s Daniel Abt and Rapax racer Adrian Quaife-Hobbs have received a three-place grid penalty each, having been both found guilty of infringing track limits to gain an advantage in turn 8.

Results
Pos Driver Team Time Gap
1 Johnny Cecotto, Jr Trident 1:15.312
2 Jolyon Palmer DAMS 1:15.352 0.040
3 Felipe Nasr Carlin 1:15.358 0.046
4 Stefano Coletti Racing Engineering 1:15.443 0.131
5 Raffaele Marciello Racing Engineering 1:15.449 0.137
6 Stoffel Vandoorne ART Grand Prix 1:15.481 0.169
7 Arthur Pic Campos Racing 1:15.608 0.296
8 Mitch Evans Russian Time 1:15.614 0.302
9 Alexander Rossi Caterham Racing 1:15.644 0.332
10 Stephane Richelmi DAMS 1:15.664 0.352
11 Andre Negrao Arden International 1:15.773 0.461
12 Julian Leal Carlin 1:15.784 0.472
13 Rio Haryanto Caterham Racing 1:15.811 0.499
14 Tio Ellinas MP Motorsport 1:15.964 0.652
15 Sergio Canamasas Trident 1:16.034 0.722
16 Takuya Izawa ART Grand Prix 1:16.092 0.780
17 Adrian Quaife-Hobbs Rapax 1:15.927 0.615*
18 Artem Markelov Russian Time 1:16.136 0.824
19 Kimiya Sato Campos Racing 1:16.274 0.962
20 Rene Binder Arden International 1:16.331 1.019
21 Daniel de Jong MP Motorsport 1:16.334 1.022
22 Daniel Abt Hilmer Motorsport 1:16.246 0.934*
23 Facu Regalia Hilmer Motorsport 1:16.497 1.185
24 Simon Trummer Rapax 1:16.531 1.219
25 Conor Daly Venezuela GP 1:16.539 1.227
26 Nathanael Berthon Venezuela GP 1:16.654 1.342

* – three-place grid penalties