“GP2 Series: Bird flies to Monza pole”

RUSSIAN TIME racer Sam Bird took his second GP2 Series pole position of the year at the famed Monza circuit in Northern Italy today.

The Englishman sets his quickest run – 1:31.788 – with six minutes remaining, pipping Fabio Leimer by a mere 0.034s as the session ticked down, bringing Bird to within ten points of the series peak.

Carlin’s Jolyon Palmer crossed the line a few short seconds after Leimer, setting what would become the 3rd quickest time of the qualifying run. Marcus Ericsson secured the outside of the second row for DAMS, with a quickest just over one-tenth from the top spot.

Tom Dillmann made it two RUSSIAN TIME drivers in the top three rows. The Frenchman just out-qualifying series leader Stefano Coletti, who brought his Rapax machine to 6th.
GP2 Series returnee Dani Clos took 7th, thanks to a 0.009s advantage over James Calado, while Jake Rosenzweig and Simon Trummer closed out the top ten. Championship contender Felipe Nasr gave himself a bit of work to do, by only managing 12th in his Carlin entry.

The session was interrupted by a red flag, when Vittorio Ghirelli spun off at the Parabolica, throwing huge plumes of gravel onto the circuit. Indeed at the same time, both Sergio Canamasas and Stephane Richelmi both endured errant spins.

2013 GP2 Series (Rd 9, Qualifying)
Pos  Driver               Team                Time       Gap
 1.  Sam Bird             Russian Time        1m31.788s
 2.  Fabio Leimer         Racing Engineering  1m31.822s  +0.034s
 3.  Jolyon Palmer        Carlin              1m31.843s  +0.055s
 4.  Marcus Ericsson      DAMS                1m31.915s  +0.127s
 5.  Tom Dillmann         Russian Time        1m31.949s  +0.161s
 6.  Stefano Coletti      Rapax               1m31.993s  +0.205s
 7.  Dani Clos            MP                  1m32.024s  +0.236s
 8.  James Calado         ART                 1m32.033s  +0.245s
 9.  Jake Rosenzweig      Addax               1m32.100s  +0.312s
10.  Simon Trummer        Rapax               1m32.164s  +0.376s
11.  Stephane Richelmi    DAMS                1m32.168s  +0.380s
12.  Felipe Nasr          Carlin              1m32.381s  +0.593s
13.  Rio Haryanto         Addax               1m32.384s  +0.596s
14.  Julian Leal          Racing Engineering  1m32.398s  +0.610s
15.  Alexander Rossi      Caterham            1m32.447s  +0.659s
16.  Adrian Quaife-Hobbs  Hilmer              1m32.462s  +0.674s
17.  Mitch Evans          Arden               1m32.481s  +0.693s
18.  Jon Lancaster        Hilmer              1m32.482s  +0.694s
19.  Nathanael Berthon    Trident             1m32.554s  +0.766s
20.  Daniel Abt           ART                 1m32.627s  +0.839s
21.  Johnny Cecotto       Arden               1m32.650s  +0.862s
22.  Daniel de Jong       MP                  1m32.751s  +0.963s
23.  Sergio Campana       Trident             1m33.195s  +1.407s
24.  Rene Binder          Lazarus             1m33.292s  +1.504s
25.  Vittorio Ghireli     Lazarus             1m33.405s  +1.617s
26.  Sergio Canamasas     Caterham            1m34.963s  +3.175s

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