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Thursday, 24 May 2012 07:55 |
 GP2 Series report and result of the qualifying session in Monaco - Venezuelan Johnny Cecotto crushed his rivals' dreams of glory with a stunning last lap in the first ever split GP2 qualifying session this afternoon in Monaco to take the top spot in Group B, along with pole position, ahead of Group A leader Max Chilton and Marcus Ericsson.
The Venezuelan's best lap of 1'21.195 was set as he crossed the line to close out the second session, pipping his Swedish rival's formerly quickest lap by just 0.054 after a restart for a single lap following a red flag period for a spin by Rodolfo Gonzalez.
The first session saw local rivals Stefano Coletti and Stephane Richelmi swapping fastest laptimes with Giedo van der Garde, but as the session ran down the Dutchman kept going faster, looking certain to claim at least a front row start as his rivals struggled to keep up until the chequered flag dropped, when Chilton put together an astonishing lap of 1'21.320 to steal provisional pole by a tenth from van der Garde and Jolyon Palmer.
A few minutes later session two was underway, with Tom Dillmann, Gonzalez and Fabio Leimer setting the pace until Ericsson stepped up with a string of astounding laps to lead the session by over six tenths and claim pole position. When Gonzalez spun there were only 3 minutes remaining on the clock as the red flags came out, and it looked as though the Swede had claimed his prize.
Cecotto, however, had other ideas, and against the odds managed to find the space to repeat this morning's performance and take the top spot on the timesheets from Ericsson, with Luiz Razia also improving on his last tour to pinch third in the session from Davide Valsecchi.
With the grid to be formed in two rows in order from the sessions, Cecotto takes pole from Chilton with Ericsson, van der Garde, Razia, Palmer, Valsecchi, Josef Kral, Leimer and Esteban Gutierrez, lining up behind them, it is a grid that promises fireworks in tomorrow's feature race in the principality.
Fabio Leimer
"At the beginning it looked positive. I was in P1 for some time. But then, when everyone improved their lap time, I could not follow and dropped back to P5. This is quite disappointing, especially here in Monaco. However, we will do our best tomorrow and the goal is to make up positions, score points and have a good starting position for the sprint race."
Nathanael Berthon
"The car was good in qualifying. I could have done much better, but on three flying laps I had traffic, always the same driver hampering me. Even when twice on cool down laps I created a 10 seconds gap to this car ahead, on my flying lap the car slowed me down, each time in the last sector. Before I was always in P4, so I think I could have realistically finished in P4. This is Monaco, the first time I had traffic in qualifying, so this complicates things for tomorrow's race, but I will do my best and definitely try to make it to the top 8."
2012 GP2 Monaco - Qualifying session results:
| Group A |
| N° |
Driver |
Team |
Time |
Laps |
| 1 |
Max Chilton |
Carlin |
1'21.320 |
10 |
| 2 |
Giedo van der Garde |
Caterham Racing |
1'21.475 |
10 |
| 3 |
Jolyon Palmer |
iSport International |
1'21.530 |
10 |
| 4 |
Josef Kral |
Barwa Addax Team |
1'21.776 |
8 |
| 5 |
Esteban Gutiérrez |
Lotus GP |
1'21.796 |
10 |
| 6 |
Stefano Coletti |
Scuderia Coloni |
1'22.174 |
10 |
| 7 |
Stéphane Richelmi |
Trident Racing |
1'22.326 |
10 |
| 8 |
Nathanaël Berthon |
Racing Engineering |
1'22.475 |
9 |
| 9 |
Felipe Nasr |
DAMS |
1'22.650 |
10 |
| 10 |
Simon Trummer |
Arden International |
1'22.997 |
10 |
| 11 |
Fabrizio Crestani |
Venezuela GP Lazarus |
1'23.193 |
10 |
| 12 |
Victor Guerin |
Ocean Racing Technology |
1'23.792 |
8 |
| 13 |
Ricardo Teixeira |
Rapax |
1'25.661 |
10 |
| Group B |
| N° |
Driver |
Team |
Time |
Laps |
| 1 |
Johnny Cecotto |
Barwa Addax Team |
1'21.195 |
9 |
| 2 |
Marcus Ericsson |
iSport International |
1'21.249 |
9 |
| 3 |
Luiz Razia |
Arden International |
1'21.858 |
10 |
| 4 |
Davide Valsecchi |
DAMS |
1'21.912 |
10 |
| 5 |
Fabio Leimer |
Racing Engineering |
1'22.053 |
10 |
| 6 |
Tom Dillmann |
Rapax |
1'22.288 |
11 |
| 7 |
James Calado |
Lotus GP |
1'22.598 |
10 |
| 8 |
Julian Leal |
Trident Racing |
1'22.762 |
11 |
| 9 |
Rodolfo Gonzalez |
Caterham Racing |
1'22.873 |
7 |
| 10 |
Nigel Melker |
Ocean Racing Technology |
1'22.996 |
10 |
| 11 |
Fabio Onidi |
Scuderia Coloni |
1'23.020 |
10 |
| 12 |
Rio Haryanto |
Carlin |
1'23.539 |
10 |
| 13 |
Giancarlo Serenelli |
Venezuela GP Lazarus |
1'25.907 |
9 |
2012 GP2 Monaco - Feature Race starting grid:
| Pos. |
N° |
Driver |
Time |
Team |
| 1 |
1 |
J. CECOTTO |
1'21.195 |
Barwa Addax Team |
| 2 |
26 |
M. CHILTON |
1'21.320 |
Carlin |
| 3 |
7 |
M. ERICSSON |
1'21.249 |
iSport International |
| 4 |
12 |
G. VAN DER GARDE |
1'21.475 |
Caterham Racing |
| 5 |
23 |
L. RAZIA |
1'21.858 |
Arden International |
| 6 |
8 |
J. PALMER |
1'21.530 |
iSport International |
| 7 |
3 |
D. VALSECCHI |
1'21.912 |
DAMS |
| 8 |
2 |
J. KRAL |
1'21.776 |
Barwa Addax Team |
| 9 |
5 |
F. LEIMER |
1'22.053 |
Racing Engineering |
| 10 |
10 |
E. GUTIERREZ |
1'21.796 |
Lotus GP |
| 11 |
21 |
T. DILLMANN |
1'22.288 |
Rapax |
| 12 |
14 |
S. COLETTI |
1'22.174 |
Scuderia Coloni |
| 13 |
9 |
J. CALADO |
1'22.598 |
Lotus GP |
| 14 |
16 |
S. RICHELMI |
1'22.326 |
Trident Racing |
| 15 |
17 |
J. LEAL |
1'22.762 |
Trident Racing |
| 16 |
6 |
N. BERTHON |
1'22.475 |
Racing Engineering |
| 17 |
11 |
R. GONZALEZ |
1'22.873 |
Caterham Racing |
| 18 |
4 |
F. NASR |
1'22.650 |
DAMS |
| 19 |
25 |
N. MELKER |
1'22.996 |
Ocean Racing Technology |
| 20 |
22 |
S. TRUMMER |
1'22.997 |
Arden International |
| 21 |
15 |
F. ONIDI |
1'23.020 |
Scuderia Coloni |
| 22 |
18 |
F. CRESTANI |
1'23.193 |
Venezuela GP Lazarus |
| 23 |
27 |
R. HARYANTO |
1'23.539 |
Carlin |
| 24 |
24 |
V. GUERIN |
1'23.792 |
Ocean Racing Technology |
| 25 |
19 |
G. SERENELLI |
1'25.907 |
Venezuela GP Lazarus |
| 26 |
20 |
R. TEIXEIRA |
1'25.661 |
Rapax |
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