Copyright GP2 Media Services
ART GP locks out the front row at the Sakhir International Circuit with Stoffel Vandoorne and Nobuharu Matsushita ahead of Alex Lynn.
The qualifying session for the opening race of the 2015 GP2 season took place under flood lights, with track temperatures of 31°C and lots of rubber on the circuit from Formula 1’s free practice sessions.
Pierre Gasly was the first man to set a competitive laptime in the busy early stage of the session, but it was soon afterwards bettered by Vandoorne, dipping under the 1:40 minute barrier with a laptime of 1:39.493. Alex Lynn jumped up to provisional second place, with a laptime just above 1:40 minutes. Rio Haryanto beat the DAMS driver’s laptime shortly afterwards by eight tenths of a second, and Jordan King, fastest in today’s free practice session, pushed Lynn even further down the order. Trident’s Raffaele Marciello attempted a flying lap, but a gearbox problem ruined his effort.
After the first ten minutes of the session, drivers began to return to the pit lane for a tyre change. Vandoorne was still on top around the halfway mark, leading from Arthur Pic, King, Haryanto, and team mate Matsushita.
With ten minutes left to run, the chase for the fastest laptime began again. Alex Lynn, sitting in provisional ninth place, was the first man back out on track, and his flying lap brought the Brit up to second place, one tenth of a second off Vandoorne. Vandoorne himself improved his own laptime shortly afterwards to 1:39.237, and Matsushita followed suit, taking second place from Lynn. Haryanto made an effort but the Indonesian was not able to improve, and neither was Pierre Gasly whose effort was ruined by running wide in the last corner. Raffaele Marciello crossed the finishing line just before the chequered flag fell to jump up to fifth place after a long time in the pits.
However, it was once again Vandoorne’s name on the top of the time sheets, the fifth consecutive pole position since his home race in Belgium in 2014. ART GP team mate Nobuharu Matsushita completes the front row, and Alex Lynn will start alongside Arthur Pic from the second row. Marciello, King, Norman Nato, Alexander Rossi, Pierre Gasly, and Sergey Sirotkin round out the top ten.
The GP2 Feature race will take place tomorrow at 13:10 local time (GMT+3).
