Photo: Alastair Staley/GP2 Media Service
Russian Time’s Sam Bird has taken the team’s second pole position in their debut GP2 season, prevailing in the qualifying session at Spa-Francorchamps.
Bird’s benchmark lap from the first part of the session proved sufficient to ensure the Briton’s pole as drivers’ second runs were complicated by the slow car of Adrian Quaife-Hobbs on-track. The Hilmer driver suffered a mechanical issue while exiting the pits and was forced to crawl back to the pits, stalling track activity for a few minutes.
Fabio Leimer and James Calado proved to be the main threats to Bird’s pole, but neither could extract a better time out of their final laps, settling on second and third respectively. DAMS driver Marcus Ericsson took fourth, ahead of Caterham’s Alexander Rossi and Nathanael Berthon, who was one of the few drivers to significantly improve during his second run.
Jolyon Palmer took seventh, ahead of Stephane Richelmi. Sergio Canamasas has qualified in ninth, but will start from 19th due to a grid penalty, giving row five to Felipe Nasr and Robin Frijns.
Championship leader and practice pacesetter Stefano Coletti will start in 20th place.
Session results
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
| 1 | Sam Bird | Russian Time | 1:56.957 | 9 | |
| 2 | Fabio Leimer | Racing Engineering | 1:57.156 | +0.199 | 9 |
| 3 | James Calado | ART Grand Prix | 1:57.404 | +0.447 | 9 |
| 4 | Marcus Ericsson | DAMS | 1:57.538 | +0.581 | 9 |
| 5 | Alexander Rossi | EQ8 Caterham Racing | 1:57.578 | +0.621 | 11 |
| 6 | Nathanael Berthon | Trident Racing | 1:57.588 | +0.631 | 10 |
| 7 | Jolyon Palmer | Carlin | 1:57.691 | +0.734 | 9 |
| 8 | Stephane Richelmi | DAMS | 1:57.802 | +0.845 | 10 |
| 9 | Sergio Canamasas* | EQ8 Caterham Racing | 1:57.804 | +0.847 | 11 |
| 10 | Felipe Nasr | Carlin | 1:57.839 | +0.882 | 10 |
| 11 | Robin Frijns | Hilmer Motorsport | 1:57.881 | +0.924 | 10 |
| 12 | Julian Leal | Racing Engineering | 1:57.924 | +0.967 | 9 |
| 13 | Tom Dillmann | Russian Time | 1:57.950 | +0.993 | 10 |
| 14 | Mitchell Evans | Arden International | 1:58.271 | +1.314 | 11 |
| 15 | Simon Trummer | Rapax | 1:58.384 | +1.427 | 11 |
| 16 | Dani Clos | MP Motorsport | 1:58.385 | +1.428 | 11 |
| 17 | Johnny Cecotto | Arden International | 1:58.419 | +1.462 | 10 |
| 18 | Rio Haryanto | Barwa Addax Team | 1:58.463 | +1.506 | 10 |
| 19 | Adrian Quaife-Hobbs | Hilmer Motorsport | 1:58.534 | +1.577 | 8 |
| 20 | Stefano Coletti | Rapax | 1:58.618 | +1.661 | 10 |
| 21 | Daniel de Jong | MP Motorsport | 1:58.789 | +1.832 | 9 |
| 22 | Rene Binder | Venezuela GP Lazarus | 1:58.803 | +1.846 | 10 |
| 23 | Vittorio Ghirelli | Venezuela GP Lazarus | 1:58.831 | +1.874 | 10 |
| 24 | Daniel Abt | ART Grand Prix | 1:59.022 | +2.065 | 13 |
| 25 | Jake Rosenzweig | Barwa Addax Team | 1:59.253 | +2.296 | 10 |
| Ricardo Teixeira | Trident Racing | 2:17.528 | +20.571 | 3 |
* Sergio Canamasas will start in P19 due to a ten-place grid penalty