RSC Mucke Motorsport's Nigel Melker repeated his brilliant Barcelona pole position at Istanbul Park proving he's very much a man to watch this season. The Dutch driver took his second pole position of the season with a time of 1:46.361 stealing the top spot from ART' s EstebanGuiterrez by just two tenths of a second. It was Manor Racing's Adrian Quaife-Hobbs who set the early pace, but Mexican Gutierrez was quick to respond.
The majority of the session was then a game of chase between Quaife-Hobbs, Gutierrez and Melker.
Despite suffering a gear change problem, the Mexican managed to ward off the competition and remain at the top of the timings.
The session was temporarily interrupted ten minutes from the end, when MW Arden's Michael Christensen lost a wheel out on track after a problem during his stop for tyres, Addax Team's Pablo Sanchez Lopez narrowly missing the #20 car.
When the chequered flag waved Dean Smith snuck up into P3 for Carlin posting a time of 1:46.728 knocking Quaife-Hobbs down into 4th with a time of 1:46.823. The Englishman's teammate James Jakes was close behind in 5th after a last ditch effort for the top spot. Daniel Morad put in animpressive performance to finish 6th no doubt putting a smile of the faces of his team Status GP after a disappointing start to the weekend.
The early morning start obviously agreed with Felipe Guimaraes, the Mexican put in one of his best performances in GP3 so far finishing in 7th spot with a time of 1:46.987. Jenzer's Simon Trummer finished in 8th spot, followed by a back on the pace Alexander Rossi in 9th. Rounding out the top ten was Tobias Hegewald for RSC Mucke Motorsport.
Yesterday's quickest man Rio Haryanto eventually ended the session in a lowly 18th spot after a brief spell in the top five.Position Car # Driver Team Best time
1 10 N. MELKER RSC Mucke Motorsport 1:46.361 2 2 E. GUTIERREZ ART Grand Prix 1:46.599 3 15 D. SMITH Carlin 1:46.728 4 9 A. QUAIFE-HOBBS Manor Racing 1:46.823 5 7 J. JAKES Manor Racing 1:46.900 6 6 D. MORAD Status Grand Prix 1:46.931 7 17 F. GUIMARAES Addax Team 1:46.987 8 24 S. TRUMMER Jenzer Motorsport 1:47.074 9 1 A. ROSSI ART Grand Prix 1:47.111 10 12 T. HEGEWALD RSC Mucke Motorsport 1:47.163 11 19 M. BORTOLOTTI Addax Team 1:47.222 12 21 M. MONRAS MW Arden 1:47.222 13 25 N. MULLER Jenzer Motorsport 1:47.226 14 28 J. PLA Tech 1 Racing 1:47.238 15 23 P. VARHAUG Jenzer Motorsport 1:47.264 16 18 P. SANCHEZ LOPEZ Addax Team 1:47.287 17 22 L. CORDEIRO MW Arden 1:47.393 18 8 R. HARYANTO Manor Racing 1:47.449 19 26 D. SECHELARIU Tech 1 Racing 1:47.494 20 30 O. OAKES Atech CRS GP 1:47.506 21 14 J. NEWGARDEN Carlin 1:47.638 22 4 R. WICKENS Status Grand Prix 1:47.665 23 27 S. COLETTI Tech 1 Racing 1:47.732 24 16 M. ALESHIN Carlin 1:47.884 25 5 I. LUKASHEVICH Status Grand Prix 1:47.892 26 29 P. REITERER Atech CRS GP 1:48.234 27 3 P. NUNES ART Grand Prix 1:48.326 28 31 V. GHIRELLI Atech CRS GP 1:48.552 29 20 M. CHRISTENSEN MW Arden 1:48.857 30 11 R. VAN DER ZANDE RSC Mucke Motorsport 1:49.171
