Stoffel Vandoorne claims maiden GP2 pole at home

McLaren test driver Stoffel Vandoorne has snatched his first GP2 pole position on home soil in today’s qualifying session at Spa-Francorchamps. The Belgian ace denied Series leader Jolyon Palmer from the top spot at the checkered flag. Mitch Evans took third spot.

The weather conditions were still fresh when the pitlane opened and the drivers fed onto the track on Pirelli Medium tires. Already fast in this morning’s practice session, Johnny Cecotto quickly topped the standings, dipping under 1m58s, but Palmer was able to find a clear lap to break the 1m57s barrier. The Briton clocked in a laptime of 1:56.857 – five tenths quicker than Vandoorne then in P2.

Another rookie looked hungry for glory in the name of Raffaele Marciello: the mighty Italian improved on his first set of tires to move up to second with a laptime of 1:57.237. Halfway through the session, the drivers returned to the pits for a fresh pair of tires. They rejoined the track with ten minutes left on the clock. This morning’s fastest man Julian Leal was on a mission and improved on the first two sectors, but he hit traffic in the final sector thus reducing his efforts to naught.

In the dying minutes, Palmer seemed to have done enough to claim another pole position this season, but Vandoorne put his head down and found some extra pace to edge the Briton out of the top spot by 0.018s. At the checkered flag, Evans took third spot ahead of Marciello, Cecotto, Leal, Nathanael Berthon, Simon Trummer, Marco Sorensen and Stéphane Richelmi.

With the weather forecast being uncertain and the demands of the Belgian track leaving no room for driver error, tomorrow’s feature race promises to be a cracker.

Spa-Francorchamps – Qualifying Session

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1.	Stoffel Vandoorne	ART Grand Prix	1:56.839	10
2.	Jolyon Palmer	DAMS	1:56.857	8
3.	Mitch Evans	RT RUSSIAN TIME	1:57.057	11
4.	Raffaele Marciello	Racing Engineering	1:57.237	13
5.	Johnny Cecotto	Trident	1:57.244	12
6.	Julian Leal	Carlin	1:57.271	13
7.	Nathanael Berthon	Venezuela GP Lazarus	1:57.272	12
8.	Simon Trummer	Rapax	1:57.284	10
9.	Marco Sorensen	MP Motorsport	1:57.389	11
10.	Stéphane Richelmi	DAMS	1:57.448	10
11.	Felipe Nasr	Carlin	1:57.475	11
12.	Arthur Pic	Campos Racing	1:57.516	10
13.	Daniel De Jong	MP Motorsport	1:57.706	11
14.	Tom Dillmann	EQQ8 Caterham Racing	1:57.770	11
15.	Conor Daly	Venezuela GP Lazarus	1:57.788	12
16.	Stefano Coletti	Racing Engineering	1:57.844	11
17.	Rene Binder	Arden International	1:57.851	12
18.	Daniel Abt	Hilmer Motorsport	1:57.875	13
19	Rio Haryanto	EQ8 Caterham Racing	1:57.974	12
20.	André Negrao*	Arden International	1:58.002	12
21.	Adrian Quaife-Hobbs	Rapax	1:58.005	12
22.	Kimiya Sato	Campos Racing	1:58.185	10
23.	Jon Lancaster	Hilmer Motorsport	1:58.218	13
24.	Sergio Canamasas	Trident	1:58.295	12
25.	Artem Markelov	RT RUSSIAN TIME	1:58.470	10
26	Takuya Izawa	ART Grand Prix	2:40.364	2

*André Negrao will lose five grid places following a penalty picked up after Budapest Sprint Race.