Meritus Luca Filippi snatched the pole position today at Sakhir in the final round of the season clocking in a best laptime of 2:07.087. The Italian stole Charles Pic’s thunder in the last minutes of the session bettering the Arden’s racer laptime by 0.091s. Pocketing two points following this result Filippi moves up to third in the drivers’ standings.
The session was dominated by six men hungry for glory: in addition to Filippi and Pic, iSport’s Oliver Turvey and Davide Valsecchi, Coloni’s Alvaro Parente and Arden’s Javier Villa tried their best to finish the session on top, but none of them could do the perfect lap that would better Filippi’s quickest laptime.
In the early stages, Giacomo Ricci and Alexander Rossi looked set for a strong performance but they soon fell behind first Filippi and then behind Villa. However, it was Pic who claimed the top spot before mid-session ahead of his teammate, Filippi, Turvey and Valsecchi.
Pic clung onto what could have been his second pole position this season for as long as he could, but Filippi would not have it and improved a couple of minutes before the chequered flag. The Frenchman, iSport’s duo and Parente pushed hard in their last flying lap, but eventually surrendered.
Behind the top five, Villa finished ahead Jules Bianchi, Luiz Razia and Ricci. Rossi completes the Top ten. Tomorrow’s feature race will start at 3:45pm local time.
Bahrain – Qualifying session
S.No. Driver Team Time Laps 1. Luca Filippi MalaysiQI-Meritus.com 2:07.087 10 2. Charles Pic Arden International 2:07.178 12 3. Oliver Turvey iSport International 2:07.237 11 4. Davide Valsecchi iSport International 2:07.243 11 5. Alvaro Parente Scuderia Coloni 2:07.413 12 6. Javier Villa Arden International 2:07.432 11 7. Jules Bianchi ART Grand Prix 2:07.710 11 8. Luiz Razia Rapax 2:07.772 11 9. Giacomo Ricci DPR 2:07.892 12 10. Alexander Rossi MalausiaQI-Meritus.com 2:08.027 11 11. Sam Bird ART Grand Prix 2:08.339 12 12. Fabio Leimer Ocean Racing Technology 2:08.428 11 13. Dani Clos Trident Racing 2:08.467 12 14. Michael Herck DPR 2:08.634 11 15. Christian Vietoris DAMS 2:08.678 11 16. Max Chilton Barwa Addax Team 2:08.692 11 17. Yelmer Buurman Ocean Racing Technology 2:08.778 11 18. Edoardo Piscopo DAMS 2:08.858 11 19. Vladimir Arabadzhiev Rapax 2:08.863 12 20 Josef Kral Super Nova Racing 2:09.454 11 21. William Bratt Scuderia Coloni 2:09.611 12 22. Rodolfo Gonzalez Barwa Addax Team 2:09.648 11 23. Jake Rosenzweig Super Nova Racing 2:09.904 12 24. Plamen Kralev Trident Racing 2:12.975 12
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