Asia champ continues strong form

Romain Grosjean has picked up where he left off in the GP2 Asia Series by claiming the first pole position for this year's main Series, ahead of Sam Bird and Luca Filippi, this afternoon at the Istanbul Park circuit.

The Frenchman's best lap of 1:34.398 was the target for the final 20 minutes of the session, and although Filippi went close and then Bird closer still to be within a tenth of pole, three red flag periods broke the session up sufficiently for Grosjean to hold on for the first points of the season.

Qualifying opened under dry but still cold conditions, with Fabio Leimer, Dani Clos, Grosjean and Jules Bianchi swapping best times, and Bird close but held up by traffic.

Grosjean put himself on the top of the timesheets just prior to Davide Valsecchi stopping on the circuit and then rolling backwards, forcing a red flag stop for the field. Bird and Filippi were among the first drivers back on track, and made good use of the space: the Italian ran just three tenths short of Grosjean's target with Bird splitting the pair just seconds later, but when Mikhail Aleshin hit the wall hard at the end of the back straight there was no option but to bring out the red flags once again.

When the track cleared the session got under way once more, but the cool temperatures meant there was little more to be gained and, when Michael Herck replayed Aleshin's incident in the final minute, the red re-emerged and the session was closed. Lining up on tomorrow's grid behind the top three are Bianchi, Clos, Luiz Razia, Charles Pic and Valsecchi: with rain now expected to hold off tomorrow, the opening round of the 2011 calendar promises fireworks.

Istanbul - Qualifying session

Driver/Team/Lap time/Laps

1.Romain Grosjean Dams 1:34.398 11

2.Sam Bird iSport Internationa l1:34.483 13

3.Luca Filippi Super Nova Racing 1:34.709 11

4.Jules Bianchi Lotus ART 1:34.784 12

5.Dani Clos Racing Engineering 1:34.797 12

6.Luiz Razi Team AirAsia 1:34.888 11

7.Charles Pic Barwa Addax Team 1:34.954 13

8.Davide Valsecchi Team AirAsia 1:34.975 13

9.Christian Vietoris Racing Engineering 1:34.981 11

10.Josef Kral Arden International 1:35.050 11

11.Max Chilton Carlin1:35.110 11

12.Giedo van der Garde Barwa Addax Team 1:35.140 11

13.Jolyon Palmer Arden International 1:35.159 12

14.Fabio Leimer Rapax1:35.164 13

15.Stefano Coletti Trident Racing 1:35.182 11

16.Johnny Cecotto Jr Ocean Racing Technology 1:35.360 11

17.Davide Rigon Scuderia Coloni1:35.369 14

18.Marcus Ericsson iSport International 1:35.375 13

19.Fairuz Fauzy Super Nova Racing 1:35.428 13

20.Michael Herck Scuderia Coloni 1:35.545 12

21.Pal VarhaugDams 1:35.681 12

22.Kevin Mirocha Ocean Racing Technology 1:35.825 12

23.Mikhail Aleshin Carlin 1:35.8737 24.