Adrian Quaife-Hobbs and SuperNova Racing showed that they still are the package to beat in Auto GP claiming pole after an hard-fought Qualifying session in Sonoma.The recently-crowned champion edged the pack by more than four tenths with a 125470 that was posted with just 3 minutes to go. Up to that point the session had been incredibly balanced, with four drivers in just 0.07 and four different leaders in the last twenty minutes.It was Pl Varhaug who took the lead early on, but at half session the paddock focus switched to a fierce fight for provisional pole between Sergey Sirotkin and Antonio Pizzonia, who exchanged the lead more than once before being beated by Quaife-Hobbs impressive flyer.If the Briton has a gap on the competition that could allow him to try and immediately build gap, behind him things are much closer: Sirotkin (125938), Pizzonia (126135) and Varhaug (126214) ended qualifying packed in less than two tenths, and their laptimes were incredibly close for the whole session.5th place went to Sergio Campana with a 126347 that was enough to keep Daniel de Jong and Giacomo Ricci at bay, in P6 and P7 respectively. Giancarlo Serenelli confirmed his feeling with the Californian track with a 127356 that was worth P8 ahead of Kotaro Sakurai, again in the top ten at his Auto GP debut with Euronova Racing. Closing the top ten was Francesco Dracone, followed by Antonio Spavone, Max Snegirev, Giuseppe Cipriani, Pippa Mann and Michele La Rosa.Adrian Quaife-Hobbs: Im really happy: its our sixth pole position in seven events, and the only one we didnt clinch was in Marrakech where we really struggled with the supersoft tyres. Today our pace was immediately good but with the first set of tyres I didnt really give it all. I pushed in some spots of the track and backed off in some others, just to get the right feeling.
I noticed that the car needed a change and the team carried it out between the first and the second stint, and things immediately got better. I found some traffic in my first flyer and posted a 126, but the second lap was clear and I could get to the 1254 that gave me pole.
Auto GP, Sonoma, Qualifying1 Adrian QUAIFE-HOBBS Supernova International 1:25.470 2 Sergey SIROTKIN Euronova Racing 1:25.938 3 Antonio PIZZONIA Zele Racing 1:26.135 4 Pal VARHAUG Virtuosi UK 1:26.214 5 Sergio CAMPANA Zele Racing 1:26.347 6 Daniel DE JONG Manor MP Motorsport 1:26.8527 Giacomo RICCI MLR71 1:27.072 8 Giancarlo SERENELLI Ombra Racing 1:27.356 9 Kotaro SAKURAI Euronova Racing 1:27.541 10 Francesco DRACONE Virtuosi UK 1:27.883 11 Antonio SPAVONE Ombra Racing 1:27.886 12 Max SNEGIREV Campos Racing 1:28.179 13 Giuseppe CIPRIANI Campos Racing 1:29.671 14 Pippa MANN Campos Racing 1:30.027 15 Michele LA ROSA MLR 71 1:30.206
