Sam Bird will start the Spa GP2 feature race from pole position after dominating qualifying at Spa-Francorchamps.
The Russian Time driver set his best time on his first set of new soft tyres, and although his rivals took plenty of shots at beating the Briton, nobody achieved it.
Fabio Leimer came closest, the Racing Engineering man was three tenths down on Bird after the first run. He shaved another tenth off that on his second attempt, but remained 0.199s in arrears.
The other main story of the session was points leader Stefano Coletti’s failure to convert his pace from free practice into qualifying speed. He lost a second to Bird in the middle sector alone, and will start 20th in his Rapax machine, 1.6s off the pace.
His nearest title rival, Felipe Nasr, also struggled. He will start 10th for Carlin.
ART’s James Calado qualified third, but was the best part of half a second down on Bird.
Marcus Ericsson will start fourth, ahead of Alexander Rossi, Nathanael Berthon, Jolyon Palmer and Stephane Richelmi.
Sergio Canamasas qualified ninth, but will receive a 10-place grid penalty for an incident in the previous round.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Sam Bird Russian Time 1m56.957s 2. Fabio Leimer Racing Engineering 1m57.156s +0.199s 3. James Calado ART 1m57.404s +0.447s 4. Marcus Ericsson DAMS 1m57.538s +0.581s 5. Alexander Rossi Caterham 1m57.578s +0.621s 6. Nathanael Berthon Trident 1m57.588s +0.631s 7. Jolyon Palmer Carlin 1m57.691s +0.734s 8. Stephane Richelmi DAMS 1m57.802s +0.845s 9. Sergio Canamasas Caterham 1m57.804s +0.847s 10. Felipe Nasr Carlin 1m57.839s +0.882s 11. Robin Frijns Hilmer 1m57.881s +0.924s 12. Julian Leal Racing Engineering 1m57.924s +0.967s 13. Tom Dillmann Russian Time 1m57.950s +0.993s 14. Mitch Evans Arden 1m58.271s +1.314s 15. Simon Trummer Rapax 1m58.384s +1.427s 16. Dani Clos MP 1m58.385s +1.428s 17. Johnny Cecotto Jr Arden 1m58.419s +1.462s 18. Rio Haryanto Addax 1m58.463s +1.506s 19. Adrian Quaife-Hobbs Hilmer 1m58.534s +1.577s 20. Stefano Coletti Rapax 1m58.618s +1.661s 21. Daniel de Jong MP 1m58.789s +1.832s 22. Rene Binder Lazarus 1m58.803s +1.846s 23. Vittorio Ghirelli Lazarus 1m58.831s +1.874s 24. Daniel Abt ART 1m59.022s +2.065s 25. Jake Rosenzweig Addax 1m59.273s +2.316s 26. Ricardo Teixeira Trident 2m17.528s +20.571s
