Wickens takes fourth pole of season
Canadian grabs top spot from Soucek in Barcelona
Robert Wickens clinched his fourth pole of the season in the
first qualifying session at Barcelona, edging out Andy Soucek by
just over two tenths of a second.
Nicola De Marco continued his impressive start to the weekend by
taking third, and will be joined on the second row by Russia's
Mikhail Aleshin.
Soucek led the way in the early stages, ahead of another
eye-catching display from Tristan Vautier. The Frenchman was again
immediately on the pace as both he and Soucek set their best times
in the opening moments of the session.
With the circuit getting continually faster as the session
progressed, Wickens took full advantage to set a 1:39.215s time and
claim the top spot as the session moved into the final ten
minutes. Philipp Eng followed suit, setting the fourth fastest
time, only to be instantly bettered by Julien Jousse.
Wickens improved again on his penultimate lap while Soucek and
Aleshin seemed to be scrapping for the same space on the circuit.
Aleshin was able to improve to take fourth, but Soucek blamed the
Russian for spoiling his final few laps. In the meantime, De Marco
had sneaked through to take third - his first top three qualifying
position since taking pole position in Brno.
Vautier was unable to improve and had to settle for fifth at the
finish - a fantastic result in his maiden F2 qualifying session.
Interestingly, the 20-year-old's best three sectors were
actually the second fastest behind Wickens. Unfortunately
he was unable to complete the perfect three sectors on the
same lap but his pace continues to impress.
Jousse and Eng dropped to sixth and seventh late on while Mirko
Bortolotti rounded out the top eight. In another extremely
close F2 qualifying session, just one tenth of a second separated
third to seventh on the grid.
Natacha Gachnang equalled her best qualifying result of the
season as she outpaced Kazim Vasiliauskas to take ninth place away
from the Lithuanian racer. Miloš Pavlović and
Tobias Hegewald will have been disappointed to end the session
outside the top ten, whilst Jason Moore and Jolyon Palmer showed
solid form by taking 13th and 14th.
There was a brief red flag period when FPA graduate Jack
Clarke spun and was left beeched in the gravel at turn 11. The
young Briton made the mistake on his first flying lap and therefore
did not set a representative time. Ollie Hancock was only able to
complete three laps before suffering with a problem, whilst Pietro
Gandolfi spun out of the session late on.
Wickens was congratulated during the F2 press conference after
the Canadian secured his fourth pole position of the season - the
best results of any driver this season.
"From my side the qualifying was pretty interesting," Wickens
admitted. "My second best lap was actually on old tyres - all
things considered I only went two tenths faster on new tyres, which
was probably due to the yellow flags. I'm very happy - the goal
here is to beat Aleshin and Bortolotti, and starting on pole
position gives me the best opportunity to do that. Obviously I want
to do it in race one to get rid of the pressure in race two. The
Superlicence is very key to my future and I think starting from
pole gives me the best opportunity to get it."
Second place Andy Soucek said: "I don't know why but I had the
feeling before the session that we would not have the perfect
strategy. I think I waited a bit too long to go onto new tyres, and
then someone spun with four minutes to go and I knew I wouldn't be
able to improve. I'm really looking forward to winning another
race; I want to score as many victories as possible, but my pace is
very similar to Robert's so it will all be about the start."
De Marco was delighted with his return to a top three press
conference, and the Italian clearly enjoys driving at the Circuit
de Catalunya: "I am happy with this qualifying because it is
important for me in this last part of the season to get a
good result," concluded Nicola. "It's really fun to drive here
in Formula Two, its beautiful and I like the circuit very
much."
FIA Formula Two Championship - First Qualifying
- Barcelona:
1. Robert Wickens, 1:39.020s
2. Andy Soucek, +0.248s
3. Nicola De Marco, +0.396s
4. Mikhail Aleshin, +0.406s
5. Tristan Vautier, +0.426s
6. Julien Jousse, +0.482s
7. Philipp Eng, +0.491s
8. Mirko Bortolotti, +0.634s
9. Natacha Gachnang, +0.640s
10. Kazim Vasiliauskas, +0.687s
Click
here to download the full classification.
The final round of the 2009 FIA Formula Two Championship
will take place at the Circuit de Catalunya, home of the Spanish
Grand Prix, this weekend (29 October - 1 November). Both races will
be screened live on Eurosport and at the official website
www.formulatwo.com, with live timing and text commentary available
for all practice sessions, qualifying sessions and
races.