Qualifications – GP2: Stoffel Vandoorne breaks the record for pole positions
Stoffel Vandoorne is increasingly establishing himself as the king of qualifying in GP2 as he secured his seventh pole position in the category at the Red Bull Ring, which is a record for the discipline! He leads his ART teammate, Nobuharu Matsushita, and French driver Pierre Gasly.
The Monaco stage will therefore remain just a minor setback in Stoffel Vandoorne’s long march forward. Indeed, after setting the best time in the six previous sessions, he had to settle for fourth place on the grid. However, that didn’t stop him from winning the next day.
During today’s session, he had to fight long and hard with Sergey Sirotkin from Rapax. The Russian was very quick, improving his time several times throughout the session. Nevertheless, the McLaren protégé delivered the decisive blow on his final attempt, creating a gap of seconds compared to the Russian.
Nevertheless, he trembled for a moment upon seeing the return of his teammate, Nobuharu Matsushita. Indeed, he conceded less than a tenth of a second to the championship leader. The two drivers from the ART Grand Prix team thus secured another double win, following the one in Bahrain. Let’s hope the young Japanese driver manages a better start than in the Middle East.
Pierre Gasly seems to have gotten to grips with his car and put his Monaco disappointment behind him, as he recorded the third-fastest time in the session, which suggests a promising haul of points.
On the other hand, the bad performance seems to be on the side of Racing Engineering, where Alexander Rossi, second in the championship, could only achieve the 12th fastest time. The American is therefore forced to make a remarkable comeback to prevent his rival from pulling ahead in the championship.
1 Stoffel Vandoorne (ART Grand Prix)
2. Nobuharu Matsushita (ART Grand Prix)
3. Pierre Gasly (DAMS)
4. Sergey Sirotkin (Rapax)
5. Rio Haryanto (Campos Racing)
6. Raffaele Marciello (Trident)
7. Nick Yelloly (Hilmer Motorsport)
8. Jordan King (Racing Engineering)
9. Arthur Pic (Campos Racing)
10. Alex Lynn (DAMS)
11. Mitch Evans (RUSSIAN TIME)
12. Alexander Rossi (Racing Engineering)
13. Julian Leal (Carlin)
14. Richie Stanaway (Status Grand Prix)
15. Artem Markelov (RUSSIAN TIME)
16. Norman Nato (Arden International)
17. Rene Binder (Trident)
18. Daniel De Jong (MP Motorsport)
19 Robert Visoiu (Rapax)
20. Marlon Stockinger (Status Grand Prix)
21. André Negrao (Arden International)
22. Nathanaël Berthon (Daiko Team Lazarus)
23. Marco Sorensen (Carlin)
24. Simon Trummer (Hilmer Motorsport)
