Fabio Leimer Secures Pole For GP2 Feature Race

Fabio Leimer will start tomorrow’s GP2 feature race from pole position, after the Swiss driver ended qualifying fastest ahead of Johnny Cecotto jr. and Jolyon Palmer in yet another wet session at Silverstone. The rain continued to fall throughout the session, as the drivers tried their hardest to keep their cars pointing in the right direction.

World Championship leader Davide Valsecchi led out the pack as the session got underway, with the traditional queue of drivers lining up eager to start their qualifying surges. The DAMS driver also set the initial pace of the session, with a 02:09.167. However, the times quickly began to tumble as more and more drivers amazingly got to grips with the immensely tricky track conditions.

In typical GP2 qualifying tradition, many drivers shared the top spot as the times got gradually quicker. Both Esteban Gutierrez, Fabio Leimer and Davide Valsecchi went quickest, with the Racing Engineering of Leimer finally rising to the top once again with a 02:02.058. The 23-year-old continued to improve on his already blistering pace in the wet, setting a further 02:01.889 as the session wore on.

Marcus Ericsson and Johnny Cecotto jr. brought out the one and only red flag delay of the session, as the two drivers both stopped on track with separate issues. Ericsson stopped down the Hangar Straight whereas Cecotto jr. limped back to the pits. The session resumed shortly afterwards, as yet another long queue of drivers led by Esteban Gutierrez streamed back on to the track.

As the session came to a close, no-one could better the time already set by Fabio Leimer as the rain continued to fall at Silverstone. Davide Valsecchi stopped on track towards the end of the lap, as did his team-mate Felipe Nasr down the Wellington Straight. With yellow flags waving frantically around the circuit, it became impossible for any driver to improve on their times. This cemented Fabio Leimer’s maiden pole-position for tomorrow’s GP2 feature race, which is expected to be drier than today’s proceedings. As ever in GP2, the grid for Sunday’s sprint race will be determined by a reversal of the top eight after the feature race.

Picture Copyright © Alastair Staley/GP2 Series Media Service