Adrian Quaife-Hobbs took the fifth pole of his Auto GP season.
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The championship leader, who has a chance to seal the title already this weekend in Curitiba, made a further step in the right direction by taking the extra point for pole after a fight with Chris Van der Drift, Antonio Pizzonia and Pål Varhaug.
Quaife-Hobbs took the lead early in the session but the fight for pole became really hot in the second half of Qualifying, after a red flag caused by de Jong stopping on track with a mechanical glitch. The Briton improved twice up to 1’12”012, but his rivals kept improving too: if in the beginning Pizzonia and Varhaug seemed the most dangerous contenders, it was Van der Drift who emerged as the quickest of the trio, stopping the clock just 1 tenth shy of pole position (1’12”148): “It was an amazing session – Chris said – we worked hard and we really improved a lot compared to the last races. I pushed as hard as I could but and even risked a bit because the sun was very low and in some spots it was really difficult to see the track limits”. Pizzonia was just another 0.06 adrift and a good third in his Auto GP Qualifying debut, with Varhaug less than one tenth far. The Norwegian driver struggled in making the most of new tyres partly due to traffic, but managed to post a very good laptime anyway.
Sergey Sirotkin was fifth with a 1’12”824, clearly hampered by the track time lost not taking part in FP2. Tomorrow he will be flanked by Max Snegirev in an all Russian 3rd row, as the Campos Racing driver stopped the clock on a 1”13”373.
Rafael Suzuki crowned a very good debut day with a P7 qualifying, ahead of an unlucky de Jong, Giuseppe Cipriani and Francesco Dracone. After not taking part in today’s Qualifying Sergio Campana will start from last spot in tomorrow’s Race 1, alongside Michele La Rosa.
Adrian Quaife-Hobbs: “We did really a good job, and we could have been quicker. My quickest lap was spoilt by the red flag, and even in the pole lap, the 1:12.0 one, I’ve been slowed down by cars that were entering the pits just ahead of me. The balance of the car changed slightly compared to the Free Practices because of the lower track temperature, but it was really a tiny balance shift and we were quick anyway. For tomorrow I have great expectations because I have the confidence to push straight away, while I don’t know about the others. We’ll see, but I’m really confident”.
source: Auto GP, autogp.org
