Pole for Valsecchi in Malaysia

Davide Valsecchi

Davide Valsecchi secured the opening Pole Position for the 2012 GP2 Series at Sepang, ensuring that the DAMS outfit continued their 2011 Championship winning form.

Joining Valsecchi on the front row is his 2011 Caterham Team Air Asia (Now named Caterham Racing) team-mate, Luiz Razia, who joined Arden International over the winter. Rounding out the top three is Max Chilton for Carlin.

Valsecchi set his Pole Position time on his third lap of the session and wasn’t beaten, but four others came close to bettering the Italians time, as the top five were covered by a tenth of a second.

The early running was set by Lotus GP’s Esteban Gutierrez, before Rodolfo Gonzalez (Caterham Racing) topped the times, beating Gutierrez’s best effort by a tenth of a second. Valsecchi soon bettered Gonzalez time and moved to the top of the times, having dipped below the 1m46 mark.

Valsecchi’s DAMS team-mate, 2011 British Formula 3 Champion Felipe Nasr soon made it a DAMS one, two but soon, Racing Engineering saw Fabio Leimer move into P2, 0.09s slower than the Italian driver.

Gonzalez brought out a yellow flag having run too wide and once the track was green again, Chilton was soon on the move and slotted into P2, closing to within 0.06s of Valsecchi, and Stefano Coletti soon put the Scuderia Coloni car into P3 as he took advantage of a clear track.

The final ten minutes saw the battle for Pole Position intensify and it was Razia who soon moved up to P2, having been fastest in the second and third sectors, and his time left him 0.6s off Valsecchi, while Chilton, Coletti and Leimer all finished within a tenth of the DAMS driver.

The top nineteen drivers were covered by 0.9s, and the top ten was completed by GP3 graduate James Calado (Lotus GP), Jolyon Palmer (iSport International), Giedo van der Garde (Caterham Racing), Fabio Onidi (Scuderia Coloni) and Nasr.

Valsecchi will face a tough fight tomorrow to secure the victory as the tyre strategy will be one to watch, as preserving the Pirelli tyres will be key to having a good race in the heat and humidity of Malaysia.

GP2 Qualifying Results:

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Davide Valsecchi	DAMS	1m45.494
2	Luiz Razia	Arden International	1m45.554
3	Max Chilton	Carlin	1m45.558
4	Stefano Coletti	Scuderia Coloni	1m45.577
5	Fabio Leimer	Racing Engineering	1m45.588
6	James Calado	Lotus GP	1m45.638
7	Jolyon Palmer	iSport International	1m45.758
8	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham Racing	1m45.773
9	Fabio Onidi	Scuderia Coloni	1m45.810
10	Felipe Nasr	DAMS	1m45.942
11	Johnny Cecotto	Barwa Addax Team	1m46.012
12	Fabrizio Crestani	Venezuela GP Lazarus	1m46.138
13	Stephane Richelmi	Trident Racing	1m46.150
14	Josef Kral	Barwa Addax Team	1m46.160
15	Esteban Gutierrez	Lotus GP	1m46.186
16	Tom Dillmann	Rapax	1m46.264
17	Rio Haryanto	Carlin	1m46.392
18	Nathanael Berthon	Racing Engineering	1m46.428
19	Nigel Melker	Ocean Racing Technology	1m46.489
20	Marcus Ericsson	iSport International	1m46.557
21	Jon Lancaster	Ocean Racing Technology	1m46.662
22	Julian Leal	Trident Racing	1m46.868
23	Rodolfo Gonzalez	Caterham Racing	1m46.962
24	Simon Trummer	Arden International	1m47.004
25	Ricardo Teixeira	Rapax	1m48.113
26	Giancarlo Serenelli	Venezuela GP Lazarus	1m49.620