Daly dashes to maiden pole in Valencia

American Conor Daly was all smiles after securing his debut pole position in GP3 for Round 2 of the season in Valencia with a lap time of 1:22.329. The ART Grand Prix ace will be joined on the front row by MW Arden’s Daniil Kvyat and Carlin’s Nick Yelloly.

The qualifying session commenced under clear blue skies as the temperatures soared over the Circuit Ricardo Tormo. As the majority of the drivers took to the track, there was an early stoppage to the session when Marussia Manor Racing’s Ryan Cullen had a spin into the gravel session which caused a brief red flag. At this point, Kvyat, Giovanni Venturini (Trident) and Robert Visoiu (MW Arden) led the way with various drivers yet to record a time.

Once the session resumed, Koiranen GP’s Kevin Korjus shot to P2 until Tio Ellinas (Marussia Manor Racing) demoted the Estonian a position. The Cypriot was charging hard and had a short excursion through the gravel.

At the midway point of the 30 minute session, most drivers returned to the pitlane for a new set of rubber in the quest for pole position. ART Grand Prix’s Facu Regalia rose to the top of standings and looked on course to keep P1 until Yelloly snatched provisional pole away with just two and half minutes left on the clock.

However, Daly and Kvyat had other ideas, and grabbed P1 and P2 as a second flag occurred when Status Grand Prix’s Adderly Fong stopped on the track. This left 1m55s remaining and once qualifying went “live" there was a mad rush out of the pitlane to complete a lap before the checkered flag was waved. Yelloly in P3 remained in the pits, as did Daly. Sainz improved on his previous best efforts to rise up the order to make it into the top ten on home soil.

The session ended with Daly achieving his maiden pole position, in front of Kvyat, Yelloly, Regalia, and the Koiranen GP duo of Aaro Vainio and Kevin Korjus. Ellinas was P7, with his Marussia Manor Racing teammate Dino Zamparelli one place back. Sainz and Visoiu rounded out the top ten. The top 19 drivers were covered by just one second.

Both Race 1 and 2 will take place tomorrow 16th June at 11.00 and 15.00 CET respectively.

Qualifying

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Laps
1.	Conor Daly	ART Grand Prix	1:22.329	15
2.	Daniil Kvyat	MW Arden	1:22.536	16
3.	Nick Yelloly	Carlin	1:22.597	13
4.	Facu Regalia	ART Grand Prix	1:22.603	15
5.	Aaro Vainio	Koiranen GP	1:22.616	16
6.	Kevin Korjus	Koiranen GP	1:22.621	17
7.	Tio Ellinas	Marussia Manor Racing	1:22.761	12
8.	Dino Zamparelli	Marussia Manor Racing	1:22.861	13
9.	Carlos Sainz	MW Arden	1:22.891	16
10.	Robert Visoiu	MW Arden	1:22.893	17
11.	Jack Harvey	ART Grand Prix	1:22.925	15
12.	David Fumanelli	Trident	1:22.936	15
13.	Lewis Williamson	Bamboo Engineering	1:22.948	14
14.	Melville McKee	Bamboo Engineering	1:22.954	15
15.	Giovanni Venturini	Trident	1:22.993	16
16.	Patric Niederhauser	Jenzer Motorsport	1:23.000	16
17.	Alex Fontana	Jenzer Motorsport	1:23.019	18
18.	Adderly Fong	Status Grand Prix	1:23.054	12
19.	Patrick Kujala	Koiranen GP	1:23.294	15
20.	Eric Lichtenstein	Carlin	1:23.364	15
21.	Emanuele Zonzini	Trident	1:23.524	15
22.	Josh Webster	Status Grand Prix	1:23.559	17
23.	Luis Sa Silva	Carlin	1:23.878	15
24.	Samin Gomez	Jenzer Motorsport	1:24.322	18
25.	Jimmy Eriksson	Status Grand Prix	1:25.044	13
26.	Carmen Jorda	Bamboo Engineering	1:25.103	16

*Ryan Cullen – Marussia Manor Racing – outside of 110% qualifying time & issued with a 5 place grid penalty following incident in Barcelona Round 1.