Abu Dhabi – In the title race, Gasly does the job in Qualifying!

Following the Formula 1 Free Practice 2, the GP2 Series competitors prepared for the final qualifying session of the season. In the feeder series to the top discipline, the Prema Racing driver secured his fifth personal pole position! Since the sixth round at the Hungaroring, the Norman driver has been unstoppable: 5 poles in six sessions (only Giovinazzi took the pole at Monza). A remarkable feat at Yas Marina: he alone accounts for almost half of all the season’s poles!

For that, Gasly brilliantly executed an alternate strategy. The Red Bull affiliate actually set his time alone on the track, while all the other drivers had returned to the pits at the end of their first qualifying stint.

The evening was in full swing in Abu Dhabi and the majority of the drivers took off as soon as the green light, including Antonio Giovinazzi, one of the last three contenders for the title, along with Gasly and Raffaele Marciello (Russian Time). Under the spotlight, Gasly followed his plan to perfection by staying in the garage until the 13th minute of the session. Then, he took to the track, with timing opposite to that of his peers.

Meanwhile, it was Sergey Sirotkin who had inherited the provisional pole position. But a clear track and good skill from the Red Bull test driver allowed him to turn the tables, clocking a time of 1:47.476, almost a second better than the Russian! From then on, he could calmly head back to the pits, fit a new set of tires, and go out again to improve his own time, along with the rest of the pack this time.

As provisional third, Giovinazzi had to roll up his sleeves to at least get onto the front row. But the end of the session wasn’t enough for him to improve his ranking. Worse, he was beaten during these waves of improvements. He dropped to the final sixth position. The other drivers tried everything, but none could snatch pole from Gasly. Sirotkin still got within 3 tenths of a second. Oliver Rowland (MP Motorsport), Nobuharu Matsushita (ART Grand Prix), and Artem Markelov each inserted themselves ahead of the championship leader. Up front, Gasly remained unstoppable and improved his personal time once again, just to remind everyone who was the boss of this qualifying session.

Norman Nato (Racing Engineering), Raffaele Marciello, Alex Lynn (Dams) and Mitch Evans (Camps Racing) complete the top 10.

#GP2 Round 11 Qualifying results:https://t.co/ai4jEcI6Xb #Ready2Race

— GP2 Series Official (@GP2_Official) 25 novembre 2016

But obviously, attention will be focused tomorrow afternoon on the performance of the duo from Prema Racing. With this pole position, Gasly has in any case gained four additional points. He is now just three points behind Giovinazzi: 193 points for the Frenchman compared to 197 points for the Italian. It’s safe to say that the long race tomorrow afternoon will weigh heavily in the awarding of the championship title! This is a situation to be closely monitored…

There’s definitely a battle going on here:-) #Ready2Race #TitleContenders #GP2 @anto_giovinazzi @PierreGASLY @Real_RMarciello pic.twitter.com/H5KofOljww

— GP2 Series Official (@GP2_Official) 24 novembre 2016