The ART Grand Prix French driver was the quickest today in the qualifying session in a 1:21.760. Bruno Senna, Andy Soucek and Karun Chandhok complete the first two rows.
After he crashed earlier today during the free practice, Luca Filippi still managed to qualify in 6th place. His team- mate, Hiroki Yoshimoto, made a mistake 10 minutes before the end of the session and damaged his car.
He will start from 8th position. The Spaniard Adrian Valles had always been quick during the four testing days. For the first race of the GP2 Asia Championship, he will place his FMS car on the 5th position of the grid, while Vitaly Petrov did only one out lap, but then had to go back to the pits because of a gearbox problem.
However, he will take part of the race. Race 1 will start at 3:30pm, local time.
Romain Grosjean (ART Grand Prix): “Once again, the team did a fantastic job. I was going for pole and I am very happy that I could achieve it. For this afternoon race, I know that Senna is more experienced than I am and I’m also here to learn, but I have a real shot at winning and I won’t miss the opportunity.”
Bruno Senna (iSport International): “In my fastest lap, Fauzy unfortunately blocked me. Then, I had just one last lap to do the job. I am a little disappointed of course, but I will still start from the front row. The level of experience that I have compared to Grosjean may give me a little bit of an edge, but you never know what could happen in the first corner.”
Andy Soucek (DPR): “This morning, we changed the set up and we improved a lot the performance of the car. In free practice, I was really quick and then I was expecting to fight for pole position. In the last 5 minutes of the session, I lost it to Senna and to Grosjean. Now, we have the pace and I usually make good starts. I will fight for the win.”
Dubai – Qualifying
Driver Team Time Laps
1. Romain Grosjean ART Grand Prix 1:21.760 17 2. Bruno Senna iSport International 1:21.809 16 3. Andy Soucek DPR 1:21.859 18 4. Karun Chandhok iSport International 1:21.963 16 5. Adrian Valles FMS International 1:22.180 17 6. Luca Filippi Qi-Meritus Mahara 1:22.187 15 7. Marco Bonanomi Piquet Sports 1:22.373 19 8. Hiroki Yoshimoto Qi-Meritus Mahara 1:22.469 12 9. Davide VCalsecchi Durango 1:22.485 21 10. Sébastien Buemi Trust Team Arden 1:22.520 18 11. Kamui Kobayashi Dams 1:22.556 19 12. Ho-Pin Tung Trident Racing 1:22.595 19 13. Fairuz Fauzy Super Nova Racing 1:22.874 18 14. Alberto Valerio Durango 1:22.891 21 15. Christian Bakkerud Super Nova Racing 1:22.947 19 16. Harald Schleghelmilch Trident Racing 1:23.048 16 17. Diego Nunes Barwa International Campos Team 1:23.190 18 18. Milos Plavlovic BCN Competicion 1:23.240 20 19. Stephen Jelley ART Grand Prix 1:23.637 13 20 Jérôme d’Ambrosio Dams 1:23.867 18 21. Jason Tahinci BCN Competicion 1:23.941 21 22. Michael Herck FMS International 1:24.078 17 23. Marcello Puglisi Piquet Sports 1:24.378 17 24. Armaan Ebrahim DPR 1:24.864 15 25 Vitaly Petrov Barwa International Campos Team -- 2 26. Adam Khan** Trust Team Arden 1:23.859 19
** Adam Khan: drop of five grid positions for Race 1 for undertaking under red flag
