Copyright GP2 Media Services
For the first time this season it is not Stoffel Vandoorne starting from the first row of the grid: Alexander Rossi took pole position at the legendary street track of Monte Carlo, profiting from the weather conditions in this split-up qualifying session. Raffaele Marciello will line up alongside the US-American on the front row, and Arthur Pic will start the race from third place on the grid next to Stoffel Vandoorne.
The qualifying session was, as usual in Monaco, split up into two groups, and the drivers with odd numbers of Group A were the first ones to hit the track. Unlucky for them, rain began to fall just as the session began, and many had to make their first lap around the wet track on supersoft tyres.
Raffaele Marciello set the first fast laptime of 1:45.404 while still on his supersofts, but soon afterwards everyone returned to the pits for wet weather tyres as the rain increased. Richie Stanaway, who had already topped the practice session this morning for a while, took the top spot from Marciello, and the Italian tumbled down the order.
Yellow flags were waved every few minutes: the weather conditions made the already challenging Circuit de Monaco even more difficult to lap, and in particular the Mirabeau corner saw many drivers run wide and take the emergency exits to avoid the barriers.
With ten minutes left to run, the laptimes at the top started to tumble down quickly. Pierre Gasly managed to dethrone Richie Stanaway before being beaten by Jordan King, who in turn was soon bettered by Julian Leal. Then it was Stoffel Vandoorne’s turn on the top, before Marciello returned to the top with a lap of 1:40.960.
The last minutes of the session were hectic with yellow flags coming on and off. Stanaway clipped a barrier and damaged his front wing with four minutes left on the clock, while Daniel de Jong was even unluckier: the Dutchman lost his car through the Tabac corner and hit the wall during the last minute, tearing a wheel off his car before grounding to a halt near the swimming pool. Despite all that, Marciello was able to improve his own time and set the benchmark for Group B to 1.40.357 minutes, ahead of Vandoorne, Leal, King, and de Jong.
As Group B went out on the track, Alexander Rossi took the lead right from the start. The Racing Engineering driver set the first fast laptime of the session, while Alex Lynn and Sergey Sirotkin took turns in P2 and P3.
Just like in Group A, yellow flags appeared and disappeared every few minutes as drivers struggled to stay on the slippery track. However, in the last ten minutes the sun peeked through the clouds and the tarmac dried up quickly: a deciding factor for Rossi who spent the last stage of the session driving in his own league. After retaking the top spot from Nobuharu Matsushita, the Racing engineering man kept improving his own time by seconds with every lap he drove, and remained unbeaten until the checkered flag with a laptime of 1:37.019. Arthur Pic was second-fastest after topping the practice session in the morning, half a second behind the American. Sirotkin finished the session in third place ahead of Nick Yelloly and Sergio Canamasas.
For tomorrow’s Feature race, Group B will line up on the left side of the grid with Alexander Rossi starting from pole position. Group A will line up on the right side of the grid behind Raffaele Marciello in P2.
