ART Grand Prix’s Alex Albon is set to start a championship comeback at the Yas Marina Circuit after claiming pole position for the Abu Dhabi feature race.
The 20-year-old converted a practice lead into the fastest time of qualifying by setting a lap time of 1m55.274s, finishing 0.240s and 0.330s ahead of the Arden International duo of Jake Dennis and Jack Aitken.
The result is a vital one for Albon (in second in the championship on 177 points) as he is four positions ahead of teammate and championship leader Charles Leclerc (first, 202 points), who is now 25 points clear of him in the standings ahead of the first race after Albon claimed four points for pole.
With just 44 points left in the weekend for two wins and two fastest laps, Trident’s Antonio Fuoco (45 points behind Leclerc), who starts in 11th, is now out of the title race before any racing has taken place.
Albon needs to outscore Leclerc by eight points in the feature race to keep his title ambitions alive going into the sprint race. A maximum of 17 points is available in the final race of 2016 for the win and fastest lap, with Albon currently having a better countback record of four wins compared to Leclerc’s three.
His ART teammate Nyck de Vries came fourth, ahead of Leclerc, after the Monegasque driver failed to find more time on his final flying lap in the session.
DAMS’ Santino Ferrucci continued his good form from practice to claim sixth on the grid ahead of Jenzer Motorsport’s Arjun Maini and his DAMS teammate Kevin Joerg. Campos Racing’s Steijn Schothorst and the final ART driver Nirei Fukuzumi completed the top ten, with the Japanese driver finishing 0.820s behind the polesitter.
Fuoco has a mountain to climb in the race to contend for second in the championship from outside the top ten, finishing as the fastest Trident driver ahead of teammate Artur Janosz. Campos’ Alex Palou was 13th fastest and with Koiranen GP’s Matt Parry 14th.
The final two Trident drivers in the standings, Giuliano Alesi and Sandy Stuvik, sandwiched Konstantin Tereschenko for positions at head of the eighth and ninth rows on the grid.
Arden’s Tatiana Calderon finished ahead of Jenzer’s Akash Nandy, DAMS’ Jake Hughes and Koiranen’s Matevos Isaakyan. Jenzer’s Alessio Lorandi, on his first visit to the circuit in his career, starts last on the grid, finishing 5.8s behind Isaakyan and 8.1s behind Albon.
Two of the last three drivers on the grid suffered problems, with Hughes having an engine failure and Lorandi having gearbox issues, restricting them to just eight and one laps respectively.
