Abu Dhabi: Davide of Valsecchi claimed his first-ever pole position when he qualified at the top of the grid at the end of the first round of the GP2 Asia Series at the brand-new Yas Marina Circuit (YMC) on Friday.
Valsecchi, who had also dominated the morning's free practice session, was timed at 1:51.964 after only four laps, a little more than two-hundreths of a second faster than ART Grand Prix driver Sam Bird (1:52.183) and Ocean Racing Technology's Fabio Leimar in third (1:52.236).
Malaysia Qi.Meritus driver Luca Filippi, who had shown a lot of promise in last weekend's testing at the same venue, was further adrift of the pace in fourth with a time of 1:52.240, while Scuderia Coloni's promising driver Roldan Rodriguez was fifth with 1:52.300.
"The idea is to take the lead at the first corner itself. We've had an incredible day and the idea now is to keep this momentum going," Valsecchi stated.
Early pace
With track temperatures rising to 44 degrees, it was rookie Alexander Rossi from OZcean Racing setting the early pace only to be outdone by Valsecchi. Scuderia Coloni's Roldan Rodriguez, Qi.Meritus' Diego Nunes and Ocean Racing's Fabio Leimer bettered Valsecchi's time, but only for a moment as the Italian went past and set the fastest on the day.
Earlier in the morning, it was Valsecchi who had dominated the free practice session. For the Italian driver at iSport International it was a logical step forward after being one of the front-runners in last week's test session. Valsecchi had also signed in the quickest lap time in free practice with 1:53.689, 1.4 seconds clear from rookie Marcus Ericsson racing under the ART Grand prix banner.
The morning session started on a dirty and slippery track, something that had last week's top performer Filippi of the Malaysia Qi.Meritus Mahara team worried a bit. "It took some time to get accustomed to the slippery and dusty track. And then we had some problems with the re-fuelling," Filippi stated. "But I have been happy with the way things have gone for us and I think we will be there among the challengers," he said.
But it was Valsecchi all the way as he remained the quickest man on track until the chequered flag with the rest of the field kept fighting behind for the crumbs, except for Josef Kral from Super Nova who stopped at turn 4 before mid-session following what looked like mechanical gremlins.
The rookies certainly made their presence felt with Sam Bird of ART Grand Prix, Fabio Leimer of Ocean Racing, Kral, Edoardo Piscopo of DAMS and Alexander Rossi of Ocean Racing all front-runners in the first 15 minutes.
The third season of the GP2 Asia Series is part of the Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix, the country's first-ever Formula One race. Saturday's first feature race will have a 11 am start.
