Maiden pole for Aleshin in frantic second qualifying
Russian tops the charts ahead of Jousse and Soucek
Mikhail Aleshin took a superb maiden pole position in changing
conditions today (Saturday), taking advantage of a drying track to
set a time well clear of the rest of the field.
The session started in wet conditions after a heavy rain shower,
but continued to dry until a clear dry line meant drivers made the
switch to slick tyres with eight minutes remaining. Mikhail
Aleshin was able to make the best of the changing conditions to set
a time of 1:22.131s, before a late red flag brought the session to
a close with many drivers on hot laps.
"My team and I have done a lot of work and this is the result,"
said Aleshin. "I want to thank my team, my mechanic and my
engineer. In these very difficult conditions it was important how
fast they could change the car set up and the tyres, and they did
it very well."
Julien Jousse set the second fastest time, although the
Frenchman admitted he may have been relegated further down the
field if the session had not been halted. Spaniard Andy
Soucek again showed great consistency to take third, whilst
Mirko Bortolotti will join him on the second row.
"It's good to be on the front row," commented Jousse. "I
was unlucky with the last red flag because I was behind Hegewald
and I couldn't do better in my last lap, but I was lucky
to still take second position! It's good for the race
tomorrow, because I think after the first corner it will be very
difficult to pass."
The session got off to a frantic start as a number
of drivers spun, as provisional pole position changed hands on
several occasions. Jousse, Tobias Hegewald and Aleshin all spun and
recovered in the early stages, whilst Alex Brundle, Miloš
Pavlović and Robert Wickens all enjoyed a brief spell at
the top of the timesheets.
Jack Clarke spun in the opening ten minutes and was left
stranded on the circuit and Jolyon Palmer went off into the gravel
at turn six. Both cars were out of the session, which
instigated the first of two red flag intervals.
A completely new order was formed in the final five minutes as
the grip improved dramatically. Aleshin, Jousse, Soucek and
Bortolotti were followed in the order by Robert Wickens and an
impressive run from Alex Brundle.
Nicola De Marco pipped Tobias Hegewald to seventh, whilst
Sebastian Hohenthal and Jason Moore rounded out the top ten -
the Englishman reaching his target as reported on
formulatwo.com yesterday.
A special mention goes to Jens Höing and Pietro Gandolfi
who both scored their best qualifying positions of the season
with 13th and 20th respectively. The final red flag came about when
Natacha Gachnang ended up in the gravel at turn 6 with less than
two minutes of the session remaining.
The final word on the session went to championship leader Andy
Soucek who was content with third position, whilst focussing on the
bigger picture: "It was drying up and it was all about who pitted
earlier and put on slicks - I think Mikhail was one of the first,
so I knew he would be on the front because you get the confidence
and grip on the tyres," he noted. "Third is still okay -
I could have ended 18th, 20th just because of the rain, so I'm
happy to be on the front. I think I just have to be intelligent and
do a clever race. The championship is still open but I just have to
keep my head down - I'm happy to have Mikhail on
pole rather than Julien or Robert!"
Qualifying two - Oschersleben
- Provisional Classification:
1. Mikhail Aleshin, 1:22.131s
2. Julien Jousse, +0.632s
3. Andy Soucek, +0.646s
4. Mirko Bortolotti, +0.952s
5. Robert Wickens, +1.092s
6. Alex Brundle, +1.137s
7. Nicola De Marco, +1.249s
8. Tobias Hegewald, +1.265s
9. Sebastian Hohenthal, +1.286s
10. Jason Moore, +1.455s