Coletti flies to Malaysia GP2 pole, Mitch 6th

GP2 Series

GP2 Series9:48pm 22 March 2013

Stefano Coletti put the record straight in today’s qualifying in Malaysia: the Monegasque driver snatched his first GP2 pole position with a blazing laptime of 1:44.280 in an extremely close session which saw him end up on top over James Calado and Felipe Nasr by four hundredths and eight hundredths respectively.

The session opened in scorching temperatures. All twenty-six drivers opted for soft tyres. Coletti was the first man to feed onto the track, but it was Sam Bird who set the early pace, closely followed by Marcus Ericsson. Nasr improved on the Brit’s laptime and went top although he hit traffic in sector 3.

Ten minutes into the session, both ART cars took to the track whilst Fabio Leimer edged Nasr out lapping the track one tenth quicker. Calado was finally on a flying lap and looked set to go top, but a small mistake in the third sector had him settle for P2. Halfway through the session, the drivers made their way back into the pits for a fresh set of option tyres. Coletti went back on track and found some extra pace to secure top spot. Having gotten the best out of his set of tyres, he made his way back to the pits, got out of his car and waited to see if he had done enough to retain pole.

At the chequered flag, and in spite of Calado and Nasr’s best efforts to reduce the gap to Coletti by a hair’s breadth, the Monegasque driver could enjoy his maiden pole position and pocket four points on the board early on. Behind the trio, Leimer secured fourth ahead of Bird who had an incident with Johnny Cecotto during the session (under investigation). Rookie Mitch Evans finished in sixth place ahead of Rio Haryanto, Rene Binder, Simon Trummer and Tom Dillmann.

With fourteen drivers running again within one second, a close battle with the top three, unpredictable weather, and new tyre strategies, the first race of the 2013 GP2 Series season will definitely be a race to watch!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Blomqvist claims podium in wet Monza F3 battle

11:26pm 24 March 2013

Autosport
0

tomblomqvist

Pascal Wehrlein claimed victory in a dramatic second Formula 3 European Championship race at Monza, which started under the…  More >

Rapax driver Stefano Coletti won the GP2 Series sprint race at Sepang, holding off a late charge from Carlin…  More >

Points finish for Mitch in first GP2 outing

6:02pm 23 March 2013

GP2 Series
0

mitchevans-gp2

It’s been a long time coming. After a hit and miss season in 2012, Fabio Leimer finally snatched a…  More >

GP2 Sepang Preview

6:09am 22 March 2013

GP2 Series
0

gp2-grid

The ninth season of the GP2 Series – which is made of eleven rounds this year – kicks off…  More >

Kiwi Blomqvist 4th in FIA European F3 Monza test

10:29am 21 March 2013

Autosport
0

tomblomqvist

Formula 3 veteran Will Buller kept his T-Sport Dallara and its ThreeBond Nissan engine on top as he headed…  More >

New Pirelli rubber to grip up Mitch and the GP2 field

10:22am 21 March 2013

GP2 Series
0

gp2-pirelli

The 2013 GP2 season – which takes in 11 rounds this year – gets underway in Sepang over the…  More >

RACE COUNTDOWN

V8 Supercars

Round 2

Tasmania 360, Symmons Plains, 7 April

Indycars

Round 2

Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, 8 April

Formula 1

Round 3

Chinese Grand Prix, Shanghai, 14 April

  • Latest headlines

  • CRC Motornews poll

    Who do you think will win the V8 Supercars Tasmania 360?

      View Results

    Loading ... Loading ...
  • Latest story comments

  • Newsletter icon

    Get the latest motorsport news delivered to your inbox