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Gasly claims maiden pole in Monza

2015 GP2 Series Round 8. Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, Monza, Italy. Friday 4 September 2015. Pierre Gasly (FRA, DAMS) Photo: Sam Bloxham/GP2 Series Media Service. ref: Digital Image _SBL1187

Pierre Gasly broke his rivals’ hearts with a stunning lap late in qualifying to claim his first GP2 pole this afternoon in Monza, repeating his efforts from this morning’s free practice to steal the top spot from Mitch Evans and Series leader Stoffel Vandoorne.

The Red Bull test driver stopped the clocks at 1:31.272, two tenths to the good over his rivals in a dramatically close session at the Autodromo, which opened to the usual hot and sunny conditions known well to the teams, with all drivers on track immediately to take advantage of the rubber laid down by the F1 teams just moments before.

Sergey Sirotkin was the first man on track, and the Russian set the early running: five minutes in and Sirotkin led McLaren tester Vandoorne, Gasly and Evans around the circuit, with each driver going successively quicker to claim the top of the timesheets. By the time most of the field returned to the pits it looked as though the New Zealander had done enough to annex pole, with the Belgian finding a little more time next time round to slot in behind him.
With Alexander Rossi running almost alone on circuit on a different schedule to most of his rivals, eyes up and down the pitlane were watching the American’s times to see if there could be any improvement. By the time they all re-emerged the drivers largely spent their time dealing with the traffic caused by that many cars on track at the same time, but Gasly threaded the needle to find enough space to steal the top spot with six minutes remaining.
His rivals eased off in the hope of saving enough tyres for a last ditch run, but it was not to be as the clock wound down to zero, handing Gasly the honours in an incredibly close session which saw 16 drivers within a second of pole, and everyone within two. Alex Lynn, Sirotkin, Rio Haryanto, Arthur Pic and Richie Stanaway will all be burning the midnight oil with their teams tonight, looking to find a way to jump the top three in tomorrow’s feature race.
Monza – Qualifying Session
Driver
Team
Laptime
Laps
1.
Pierre Gasly
DAMS
1:31.272
12
2.
Mitch Evans
RUSSIAN TIME
1:31.424
10
3.
Stoffel Vandoorne
ART Grand Prix
1:31.478
12
4.
Alex Lynn
DAMS
1:31.615
12
5.
Sergey Sirotkin
Rapax
1:31.640
12
6.
Rio Haryanto
Campos Racing
1:31.898
11
7.
Arthur Pic
Campos Racing
1:31.938
11
8.
Richie Stanaway
Status Grand Prix
1:31.985
11
9.
Sergio Canamasas
Daiko Team Lazarus
1:32.000
13
10.
Alexander Rossi
Racing Engineering
1:32.014
12
11.
Raffaele Marciello
Trident
1:32.071
12
12.
Nobuharu Matsushita
ART Grand Prix
1:32.100
13
13.
Robert Visoiu
Rapax
1:32.155
12
14.
Julian Leal
Carlin
1:32.159
13
15.
Norman Nato
Arden International
1:32.174
12
16.
Johnny Cecotto
Trident
1:32.176
11
17.
Jordan King
Racing Engineering
1:32.283
12
18.
André Negrao
Arden International
1:32.386
13
19
Jann Mardenborough
Carlin
1:32.398
13
20.
Rene Binder
MP Motorsport
1:32.447
12
21.
Marlon Stockinger
Status Grand Prix
1:32.619
11
22.
Artem Markelov
RUSSIAN TIME
1:32.637
11
23.
Simon Trummer
Hilmer Motorsport
1:32.794
11
24.
Patric Niederhauser
Daiko Team Lazarus
1:32.913
13
25.
Meindert Van Buuren
MP Motorsport
1:33.126
11