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Kazuki Nakajima will start this afternoon's race from pole, with championship hopeful Timo Glock alongside him.
Kazuki
Nakajima has taken his first ever GP2 pole position in qualifying today
at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, just pipping Timo Glock and
Luca Filippi in a session which saw the top three seperated by just a
tenth of a second.
The Japanese driver's lap of 1:19.312 claimed the top spot in a
torrid session which saw the timesheets ticking over constantly in the
early part of the session, with the drivers mostly unable to match the
early intensity in the closing stages of the session.
Title
contender Lucas di Grassi set the early running despite a scare when
Mike Conway ran wide in front of the Brazilian, and held onto the top
spot when the red flags were brought out as a result of Andi Zuber
stopping on the front straight as the marshals swarmed on track to
retrieve the stricken car.
With the track quickly clear the
session could recommence, and the local drivers were soon squabbling
among themselves for home honours: Borja Garcia was on top ahead of
countrymen Andy Soucek, Marcos Martinez and Roldan Rodriguez, but the
main fight was about to break out: ten minutes into the session the top
spot was claimed by Filippi, Nicolas Lapierre, Xandi Negrao, Glock and
then Nakajima in about the same time it takes to read their names, but
the Japanese driver's time was untouchable for the remainder of the
session.
As a result of the action di Grassi was well down the
timesheets and in dire need of improvement if he was to get on terms
with title rival Glock: after changing tyres midway through the session
the Brazilian dragged himself up to seventh position, but the German
was still circulating at close to pole claiming times despite
flatspotting his new left front tyre.
As the session was coming
to a close Martinez spun his car at the final corner, beaching himself
on the edge of the track and bringing out local yellow flags: he
eventually got away again after receiving a helping hand from the
marshals, but the damage was done and no one could improve their times
on the final lap.
Rounding out the top eight behind the Filippi
were Lapierre, Negrao, Rodriguez, di Grassi and Vitaly Petrov, and as
ever the times were tight: 17 drivers were within a second of pole on
the tight and twisty circuit.
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