Grosjean on pole for feature race

The Renault F1 test driver backed up his pace in free practice by dominating qualifying for round five of the ten-race series with ART Grand Prix. His best lap time of 1.44.182s was nearly 0.8s faster than Karun Chandhok, who shares the front row, could manage.

"This is a fantastic result!" said Grosjean. "This pole position was one of my goals of the weekend, the second one is to win tomorrow on this beautiful track. I don't feel any extra pressure from racing in front of the Formula One paddock: I just keep focused on my objectives. This is still a learning period for me."

Fisichella Motor Sport driver Adrian Valles will start third on the grid, with Chandhok's iSport teammate Bruno Senna in fourth.

Luca Filippi was fifth fastest but was one of four drivers to ignore yellow flags and was docked five places on the grid for race one. Vitaly Petrov, Hiroki Yoshimoto and Jason Tahinci were deemed the other guilty parties by the FIA stewards.

This means that Sentul feature-race winner Sebastien Buemi moves up to fifth on the grid ahead of the man who won the sprint race in Indonesia, Fairuz Fauzy.

Toyota's F1 test driver Kamui Kobayashi will start seventh with Davide Valsecchi, Yelmer Buurman and Filippi completing the top ten.


Pos  Driver          Team           Time            Laps
 1.  Grosjean        ART            1.44.182          13
 2.  Chandhok        iSport         1.44.965  +0.783  14
 3.  Valles          FMS            1.45.035  +0.853  15
 4.  Senna           iSport         1.45.094  +0.912  13
 5.  Buemi           Arden          1.45.182  +1.000  15
 6.  Fauzy           Super Nova     1.45.367  +1.185  14 
 7.  Kobayashi       DAMS           1.45.401  +1.219  15 
 8.  Valsecchi       Durango        1.45.471  +1.289  14
 9.  Buurman         Arden          1.45.560  +1.378  14 
10.  Filippi         Qi-Meritus     1.45.166  +0.984  14
11.  Bakkerud        Super Nova     1.45.576  +1.394  15
12.  Tung            Trident        1.45.704  +1.522  15  
13.  Hanley          Barwa Campos   1.45.879  +1.697  14 
14.  Jelley          ART            1.45.901  +1.719  14  
15.  Petrov          Barwa Campos   1.45.483  +1.301  14
16.  Valerio         Durango        1.45.932  +1.750  14  
17.  d'Ambrosio      DAMS           1.46.019  +1.837  12     
18.  Schleghelmilch  Trident        1.46.069  +1.887  14     
19.  Yoshimoto       Qi-Meritus     1.45.719  +1.537  15
20.  Pavlovic        BCN Comp.      1.46.093  +1.911  13
21.  Nunes           DPR            1.46.186  +2.004  13
22.  Herck           FMS            1.46.258  +2.076  15
23.  Bonanomi        Piquet Sports  1.46.281  +2.099   8
24.  Puglisi         Piquet Sports  1.46.923  +2.741  14
25.  Ebrahim         DPR            1.47.720  +3.538  15        
26.  Tahinci         BCN Comp.      1.46.710  +2.528  15