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