A 30 minute session with the clear sky for this qualifying today. No chance of rain. The Swedish Ericson DAMS was determined to make a pole from the start, all the drivers out on the track to attack the clock, it would be very hard to beat Calado and Coletti who had shown very strong in practice.
Hobbs, Coletti and Cecotto was the fastest at the beginning of the session, after the first few laps favorites returning to their place. Racing Engineering, Dams and ART have been traditionally fast on this circuit.
Calado was really fast, results have improved as rubber was putting down on the track but drivers positions did not change.
In this moment the classification was as follows: Bird, Leimer, Calado, Rossi, Palmer, Canamasas, Nasr, Ericson, Leal, Dillman closing the top10
9 minutes to finish the session, drivers have improved their chrono but not enough to overcome Bird. He would not see his pole in danger with his 0,3s gap. Leimer and Calado follow him.The rest of the drivers were away with 0,7 gap
A new change of wheels for the last attempt of the session and seemed that Leimer approached the coveted pole but in the last moment, his time would be worth to be second, not for pole. Ericson for his part in the last moment is placed in fourth position. It was a very hard qualyfing session as there are thirteen pilots in a second. Sam Bird Time Russian driver took pole with 0,2 gap with Leimer and Calado. Russian Time team has a new livery for this race with the slogan Sochi is Cool, Russian city will host the next Winter Olympics Games in 2014 and the next Formula 1 Grand Prix in Russia, next season too.
Later in the press conference the British driver would comment that had been disturbed in his lap and lost a few tenths with it because traffic, (Hobbs). The driver was calm anyway at the end he was on pole but it was not a good situation and he had complained. Leimer continues still being fit as in recent races and Calado was very happy with his third place which has made him to be, for the first time in GP2, in the second row