Pierre Gasly extended his run of GP2 pole positions as he grabbed top spot in the opening qualifying session of 2016 in Barcelona.
The Frenchman, driving for Prema Racing was the only driver to lap in under 1m28s and headed compatriot Norman Nato.
DAMS’ Alex Lynn and Nicholas Latifi will line up alongside each other on the second row.
Pre-season favourite and early pace-setter Sergey Sirotkin starts fifth for ART ahead of the impressive Gustav Malja for Rapax.
Despite dark clouds and drizzle looming over the Catalunya circuit, all 22 drivers headed out on soft tyres for the first qualifying session of the 2016 season. The afternoon was free of any major incident, with Arden’s Nabil Jeffri’s brief excursion to the turn 4 gravel the only talking point.
Title protagonists Sirotkin and Gasly exchanged fastest times early on in the session with the ART driver beating the Frenchman by a little under 0.4s. Nobuharu Matsushita then slipped in between the two to lie second.
Gasly, who set the morning practice pace, then set the quickest time in the first two sectors, before registering a personal best in the final sector to grab provisional pole, as light rain began to fall on the back of the circuit.
After their initial flying laps, both Sirotkin and Matsushita languished towards the lower end of the top 10 as the top two, Gasly and Oliver Rowland led the field into the pits to change tyres.
Sirotkin temporarily headed the times again after improving in the second sector, but Gasly found the perfect lap and dipped into the 1m27s for the first time of the weekend to go 0.4s faster than Racing Engineering’s Nato.
Such was the dominance of Gasly and PREMA, the Frenchman, along with Alex Lynn set the least amount of laps on his way to the fastest time.
DAMS had a promising qualifying, and in the hands of Lynn and teammate Nicholas Latifi will line up third and fourth on the grid.
Sirotkin had to make do with a disappointing final attempt and failed to match the pace of Gasly, who took his fourth career – and third consecutive – pole position. The Russian finished 0.8s adrift of the Red Bull junior.
The surprise of the session came in the form of Swedish driver Gustav Malja qualifying sixth fastest for Rapax, beating both Rowland and Matsushita to line up with Sirotkin on the third row.
Mitch Evans’ frustrating start to the new season continued as he only managed 18th fastest in qualifying. The Kiwi finished over 1.5s slower than Gasly’s time and faces an uphill battle to score points in the Feature Race on Saturday.
