“Haryanto loses Monaco GP2 front row”

Indonesian racer Rio Haryanto lost his coveted front row position for the Monaco GP2 Feature Race yesterday evening.

Following the session, it was determined the Caterham racer had impeded DAMS’ Stéphane Richelmi during the ‘ Group B’ session, as the latter was on a quick run.

The penalty drops Haryanto to 5th and promotes Richelmi to 3rd, just behind his teammate polesitter Jolyon Palmer. Mitch Evans now starts from Haryanto’s 2nd place, while Johnny Cecotto Jr moves up to 4th on the grid.

Both Hilmer drivers were also penalised for impeding other drivers during qualifying. Daniel Abt got in the way of a speedy Cecotto Jr, while Facu Regalia blocked Sergio Canamasas – Abt and Regalia will start 10th and 23rd respectively.

Finally, recent GP2 victor Felipe Nasr also received a penalty for getting in the way of Cecotto Jr. The Brazilian will drop to 18th on the grid, essentially killing off any lingering hopes for a second race victory.

2014 GP2 Series (Rd 3, Qualifying, Monaco)
Pos  Driver               Team                Time       Session
 1.  Jolyon Palmer        DAMS                1m20.774s  Group A
 2.  Mitch Evans          Russian Time        1m21.188s  Group A
 3.  Stephane Richelmi    DAMS                1m21.444s  Group B
 4.  Johnny Cecotto Jr    Trident             1m21.361s  Group A
 5.  Rio Haryanto         Caterham            1m21.433s  Group B*
 6.  Stoffel Vandoorne    ART                 1m21.508s  Group B
 7.  Stefano Coletti      Racing Engineering  1m21.649s  Group B
 8.  Raffaele Marciello   Racing Engineering  1m21.917s  Group A
 9.  Julian Leal          Carlin              1m21.752s  Group B
10.  Daniel Abt           Hilmer              1m21.760s  Group A*
11.  Alexander Rossi      Caterham            1m22.146s  Group A
12.  Sergio Canamasas     Trident             1m21.926s  Group B
13.  Simon Trummer        Rapax               1m22.296s  Group A
14.  Arthur Pic           Campos              1m22.207s  Group B
15.  Rene Binder          Arden               1m22.270s  Group B
16.  Kimiya Sato          Campos              1m22.588s  Group A
17.  Adrian Quaife-Hobbs  Rapax               1m22.277s  Group B
18.  Felipe Nasr          Carlin              1m22.381s  Group A*
19.  Tio Ellinas          MP                  1m22.681s  Group A
20.  Conor Daly           Lazarus             1m22.997s  Group A
21.  Daniel de Jong       MP                  1m22.488s  Group B
22.  Andre Negrao         Arden               1m23.178s  Group A
23.  Facu Regalia         Hilmer              1m22.473s  Group B*
24.  Nathanael Berthon    Lazarus             1m22.632s  Group B
25.  Takuya Izawa         ART                 1m23.259s  Group A
26.  Artem Markelov       Russian Time        1m23.347s  Group B

Notes:
Penalties:
*Haryanto, Abt, Nasr and Fegalia handed 5-place penalties for blocking in qualifying.