Nicolas Lapierre has put his Dams GP2 Series car in pole position for tomorrow’s race at Spa- Francorchamps with a last minute flyer to deny Super Nova’s Luca Filippi. The Italian looked to have things sewn up on the Belgian track, but Nicolas timed his run to perfection to take the top spot with just two minutes of the session left to run. Luca finished second, with Bruno Senna third, despite spinning out of qualifying at the end of the first ten minutes. Qualifying  Report:  As  the  session  began,  Championship  contender  Lucas  di  Grassi  was  the immediate pace-setter, dropping in a 1:57.874 to lead his rivals after their first flying laps. Luca however had the measure of the Brazilian and went top with a 1:57.262, which he improved to a 1:56.896 moments later.

After  the  first  ten  minutes,  Luca  led  Bruno,  Adam  Carroll,  Lucas,  Mike  Conway  and  Giorgio Pantano. Bruno, who had set the pace in practice, was desperate to bite into Luca’s lead, but a mistake at the final chicane saw the Brazilian spin and stall. His session was over, and he would have to wait to see if his time would be good enough to keep him at the sharp end. Timo  Glock  leapt  up  to  fourth  position  at  the  mid-point  of  the  session,  running  wide  next  time through  as  he  allowed  a  flying  Luca  past.  Further  around  the  track,  however,  the  traffic  was causing headaches for the other drivers. Mike was on a quick lap, but at the final chicane found the determined Lucas in no mood to budge, with the Englishman’s front wing coming off worse in a collision which sent Mike back to the pits. Lucas remained out on track and pushing for pole. With  six  minutes  to  go  Andi  Zuber  went  third,  with  Timo  taking  fourth  two  minutes  later.  Then, from out of nowhere, Nicolas Lapierre swept into provisional pole with a lap of 1:56.885. It was a breathtaking  effort.  Timo  however  was  not  finished  yet.  After  the  second  section  he  was  the fastest  driver  of  the  afternoon,  but  pole  was  not  to  be  as  pitting  cars  slowed  him  at  the  final chicane.

In the meantime, Lucas took fourth, and the grid was set. Nicolas it was who took his first pole position since the very first GP2 Series race in Imola back in 2005, from Luca and Bruno, with Lucas fourth, Andi fifth and Timo sixth. The championship rivals will  start  line  astern  tomorrow,  but  with  three  confident  and  quick  drivers  in  front  of  them,  its anyone’s race.

1st Nicolas Lapierre: Dams. 1:56.885 We  did  a  good  job  and  a  big  step  in  the  last  few  races,  although  it  was  a  little  bit  hard  to  see because we had some trouble. This morning in free practice went okay, and in qualifying I did a good  lap  on  my  second  set  of  tyres  which  was  good  enough  to  get  pole,  so  it  is  a  little  bit surprising but from this morning I think we knew we were going to be at the front.

2nd Luca Filippi : Super Nova International. +0.011 I  was  28  minutes  on  pole  and  then  I  lost  it  for  11  thousands,  which  is  a  very  short  gap.  I  was second this morning and second this afternoon so we just can see that our pace is good and that the car is working perfectly and I think we have shown a very good pace during the whole day. Tomorrow will be very interesting.

3rd Bruno Senna : Arden International. +0.221 I have to say that I am pretty confident for tomorrow. Given the conditions if I am able to stay out of trouble I believe we can be strong and I can win the race. We just need to have a focussed head and do a good job, see if the strategy and pitstops work and if that happens we will be able to win.