Home Formula 2 Coletti edges Calado and Nasr for Malaysia pole

Coletti edges Calado and Nasr for Malaysia pole

by Peter Allen

Photo: Alastair Staley/GP2 Series Media Service

Stefano Coletti scored his first GP2 pole position in an extremely close qualifying session for the opening race of the season in Malaysia, with just eight thousandths of a second separating the top three.

Monegasque driver Coletti set his best lap with just over ten minutes remaining in the session. Felipe Nasr then fell 0.008 seconds short of the benchmark, before practice pacesetter and pre-season favourite James Calado went just 0.004s slower to slot into second place.

Fabio Leimer had been sitting pretty on top spot at the halfway stage but had to make do with fourth place. Sam Bird was a strong fifth on his first day in a GP2 car since late 2011 with new team Russian Time.

His session was interrupted however when Johnny Cecotto drove towards the British driver and forced him off track. Stewards are investigating the incident.

Cecotto?s Arden teammate Mitch Evans was a fine sixth on his GP2 debut ahead of Rio Haryanto, while Rene Binder and Simon Trummer scored their best qualifying results in eighth and ninth. Tom Dillmann rounded out the top ten.

The feature race takes place at 11:15 local time on Saturday, or 03:15 GMT.

Pos Drivers Team Laps Time Gap
1 Stefano Coletti Rapax 8 1:44.280
2 James Calado ART Grand Prix 8 1:44.284 0.004
3 Felipe Nasr Carlin 11 1:44.288 0.008
4 Fabio Leimer Racing Engineering 8 1:44.463 0.183
5 Sam Bird RUSSIAN TIME 9 1:44.598 0.318
6 Mitch Evans Arden International 12 1:44.618 0.338
7 Rio Haryanto Barwa Addax Team 10 1:44.681 0.401
8 Rene Binder Venezuela GP Lazarus 9 1:44.687 0.407
9 Simon Trummer Rapax 14 1:44.692 0.412
10 Tom Dillmann RUSSIAN TIME 11 1:44.731 0.451
11 Julian Leal Racing Engineering 11 1:44.732 0.452
12 Sergio Canamasas Caterham Racing 12 1:44.761 0.481
13 Marcus Ericsson DAMS 10 1:44.766 0.486
14 Johnny Cecotto Arden International 10 1:44.788 0.508
15 Adrian Quaife-Hobbs MP Motorsport 14 1:45.191 0.911
16 St?phane Richelmi DAMS 11 1:45.262 0.982
17 Conor Daly Hilmer Motorsport 12 1:45.289 1.009
18 Nathana?l Berthon Trident Racing 11 1:45.378 1.098
19 Kevin Ceccon Trident Racing 12 1:45.491 1.211
20 Ma Qing Hua Caterham Racing 10 1:45.497 1.217
21 Daniel De Jong MP Motorsport 13 1:45.522 1.242
22 Daniel Abt ART Grand Prix 9 1:45.593 1.313
23 Jolyon Palmer Carlin 10 1:45.662 1.382
24 Jake Rosenzweig Barwa Addax Team 11 1:45.708 1.428
25 Pal Varhaug Hilmer Motorsport 12 1:45.830 1.550
26 Kevin Giovesi Venezuela GP Lazarus 12 1:45.985 1.705

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