Friday, September 5, 2008

Chandhok fastest, but Senna on pole

Karun Chandhok set the fastest time in GP2 Series qualifying at Spa-Francorchamps on Friday afternoon, but his iSport teammate Bruno Senna will start Saturday's feature race from pole as Chandhok has a 10-place grid penalty for a collision in the previous race.

A cloudbust just before the session sent the teams into a frenzy of set-up changes in the pitlane, as it was evident the wet conditions would remain throughout the 30 minutes.

Chandhok left it until the very final seconds of qualifying to set the quickest time, his 2:15.489 just 0.061 quicker than his teammate Senna, who had led the way for much of the session.

But his 10-place grid penalty, incurred when he punted Vitaly Petrov into a spin in the Valencia sprint race, will drop the Indian down the order to 11th.

The destiny of the two points for pole position, however, caused some paddock debate. GP2 has ruled that Senna will receive them, so he moves two points closer to series leader Giorgio Pantano - the gap between them now 11 points.

Alvaro Parente was also very impressive throughout the session, and will start alongside Senna on the front row in his Super Nova entry. Romain Grosjean was next up for ART Grand Prix, and was another to improve on his final lap despite waved yellow flags for Luca Filippi's Arden car, which was buried in the Pouhon tyre wall.

Series leader Giorgio Pantano was fifth fastest, and so will start fourth, ahead of Andi Zuber (Piquet Sports), Sebastien Buemi (Arden), Mike Conway (Trident), Andy Soucek (Super Nova) and Pastor Maldonado (Piquet).

Maldonado was fastest when he caused a red flag halfway through the session when he spun into the barriers on the exit of Malmedy, damaging his left-rear corner. He will start ninth.

Others to crash out included Lucas di Grassi (on his out lap), Sakon Yamamoto (ART) and Kamui Kobayashi (DAMS). Roldan Rodriguez (FMS) spun at Pouhon while marshals were retrieving Filippi's car, so the stewards' room is likely to be a busy place for the next couple of hours while incidents are investigated.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Chandhok iSport International 2:15.489 11 2. Senna iSport International 2:15.550 + 0.061 11 3. Parente Super Nova Racing 2:16.100 + 0.611 11 4. Grosjean ART Grand Prix 2:16.280 + 0.791 12 5. Pantano Racing Engineering 2:16.291 + 0.802 9 6. Zuber Piquet Sports 2:16.370 + 0.881 9 7. Buemi Trust Team Arden 2:16.786 + 1.297 11 8. Conway Trident Racing 2:16.853 + 1.364 12 9. Soucek Super Nova Racing 2:16.958 + 1.469 11 10. Maldonado Piquet Sports 2:17.310 + 1.821 4 11. Petrov Barwa Campos Team 2:17.374 + 1.885 7 12. Valerio Durango 2:17.587 + 2.098 13 13. Valsecchi Durango 2:17.757 + 2.268 13 14. Nunes DPR 2:17.857 + 2.368 13 15. Asmer FMS International 2:17.969 + 2.480 13 16. Valles BCN Competicion 2:18.097 + 2.608 11 17. Rodriguez FMS International 2:18.170 + 2.681 11 18. Herck DPR 2:18.206 + 2.717 12 19. Tung Trident Racing 2:18.836 + 3.347 12 20. Filippi Trust Team Arden 2:19.174 + 3.685 6 21. D'ambrosio Dams 2:19.394 + 3.905 9 22. Villa Racing Engineering 2:21.482 + 5.993 12 23. Iaconelli BCN Competicion 2:22.089 + 6.600 12 24. Yamamoto ART Grand Prix 2:22.764 + 7.275 5 25. Kobayashi Dams 2:24.020 + 8.531 3 Outside 107% Di Grassi Barwa Campos Team 2:30.459 + 14.970 2

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