Marcus Ericsson pips Alexander Rossi to GP2 pole at Abu Dhabi

Marcus Ericsson has stormed to his third pole position in the GP2 Series, after a thrilling qualifying session for the final feature race of the season. The Swedish ace only just managed to deny Alexander Rossi the luxury of securing his maiden pole in the Series, with Championship rivals Sam Bird and Fabio Leimer 3rd and 5th respectively.

The final qualifying session of the season began under the floodlights around the Yas Marina Circuit, as Simon Trummer lead out a long queue of drivers once the session finally got underway. During the opening minutes of the session almost the entire field immediately took to the track, with only the ART Grand Prix duo of James Calado and Daniel Abt remaining in the pit-lane. As the many drivers out on track jostled for a clean lap, Championship contender Stefano Coletti produced the first timed lap of the session with a 01:59.714.

Alexander Rossi narrowly missed out on what would’ve been his maiden GP2 pole.

Naturally the times quickly began to tumble as the qualifying session continued, as the likes of Simon Trummer, Jolyon Palmer and Alexander Rossi each contributed in lowering the benchmark with the latter producing a 01:49.675. As the battle for pole raged on at the sharp-end of the order, Felipe Nasr and Alexander Rossi came perilously close to colliding at Turns 8 and 9 but somehow managed to avoid each other. Jolyon Palmer soon managed to return to the top with a 01:49.376 for Carlin, before Alexander Rossi produced a sensational final sector to storm to the top with a 01:49.276 which included narrowly avoiding the slow moving ART Grand Prix of Daniel Abt.

Meanwhile the private battle between the main two Championship contenders raged on behind the fight for provisional pole, as Fabio Leimer managed to rise ahead of rival Sam Bird into 3rd position. However, the Championship leader then suffered a major lock-up at Turns 8 and 9 which scuppered his next flying lap. As the session ensued many drivers came under investigation by the race stewards for varying misdemeanors centralized around potential blocking maneuvers, including Gianmarco Raimondo, James Calado, Daniel Abt and Alexander Rossi.

After enjoying an highly competitive start to the season for Rapax, Stefano Coletti has only just managed to cling on to the Championship fight at the front as the season draws to a conclusion. The Monegasque driver was visibly pushing his car through the first sector in a bid to rise up the order, however this ended in a string of errors which ultimately ruined his lap. After running perilously wide at the high-speed Turn 4, Coletti then completely cut Turn 6 after carrying way too much speed.

As many of the drivers up and down the gird prepared to return to the Yas Marina Circuit on fresh tyres in a bid to improve their position, Daniel Abt’s qualifying session simply failed to improve as the German’s left-rear wheel worked it’s way loose and fell off. This caused a momentary red flag delay as the car and wheel was removed by the marshals, therefore forcing everyone who had returned to the track on new tyres to frustratingly return to the pits.

After a delay of several minutes as Daniel Abt’s stricken ART Grand Prix car was removed along with it’s rogue wheel, the session was resumed in a flurry of freneticism as Rio Haryanto led out almost the entire field at once. Such was the urge to return to the track that Julian Leal almost collected Marcus Ericsson on his way out of the pits, which unsurprisingly saw him come under investigation by the stewards for an unsafe release. Despite relatively fresh tyres, neither Sam Bird or Fabio Leimer were able to challenge for pole position, as Marcus Ericsson asserted his authority over proceedings with a 01:48.924. This time enabled the Swedish sensation to secure pole position for DAMS, and will see him start the all-important feature alongside the Caterham of Alexander Rossi.

With Stefano Coletti qualifying way down in 18th position for Rapax, the Championship is now realistically only between the Racing Engineering of Fabio Leimer and the Russian Time of Sam Bird. Both drivers will start tomorrow’s race in the same vicinity of the grid, creating what will surely be a mouth-watering final feature race of what has been a superlative GP2 season.

Pos  Driver               Team                Time       Gap
 1.  Marcus Ericsson      DAMS                1m48.924s
 2.  Alexander Rossi      Caterham            1m48.931s  +0.007s
 3.  Sam Bird             Russian Time        1m49.241s  +0.317s
 4.  Jolyon Palmer        Carlin              1m49.376s  +0.452s
 5.  Fabio Leimer         Racing Engineering  1m49.485s  +0.561s
 6.  Tom Dillmann         Russian Time        1m49.672s  +0.748s
 7.  Johnny Cecotto Jr    Arden               1m49.680s  +0.756s
 8.  Jon Lancaster        Hilmer              1m49.827s  +0.903s
 9.  Felipe Nasr          Carlin              1m49.829s  +0.905s
10.  Stephane Richelmi    DAMS                1m49.835s  +0.911s
11.  Dani Clos            MP                  1m49.846s  +0.922s
12.  Mitch Evans          Arden               1m49.864s  +0.940s
13.  Sergio Canamasas     Caterham            1m49.951s  +1.027s
14.  James Calado         ART                 1m50.002s  +1.078s
15.  Rio Haryanto         Addax               1m50.334s  +1.410s
16.  Nathanael Berthon    Trident             1m50.446s  +1.522s
17.  Adrian Quaife-Hobbs  Hilmer              1m50.510s  +1.586s
18.  Stefano Coletti      Rapax               1m50.534s  +1.610s
19.  Julian Leal          Racing Engineering  1m50.553s  +1.629s
20.  Simon Trummer        Rapax               1m50.634s  +1.710s
21.  Jake Rosenzweig      Addax               1m50.809s  +1.885s
22.  Rene Binder          Lazarus             1m50.884s  +1.960s
23.  Daniel de Jong       MP                  1m50.906s  +1.982s
24.  Daniel Abt           ART                 1m50.907s  +1.983s
25.  Vittorio Ghirelli    Lazarus             1m51.493s  +2.569s
26.  Gianmarco Raimondo   Trident             1m52.311s  +3.387s

Picture(s) Copyright © Alastair Staley/GP2 Series Media Service