Jules Bianchi takes Silverstone GP2 pole in rain-hit session
Jules Bianchi took pole position for the first GP2 race of the weekend in a rain-hit qualifying at Silverstone
The only meaningful laps came in the first part of the session, as heavy rain soaked the track just nine minutes in. ART driver Bianchi had poached top spot from championship leader Romain Grosjean (DAMS) just two minutes earlier, and shortly before the rain Carlin's Alvaro Parente had taken the second front row slot.
Track conditions never got anywhere near close enough to allowing anyone to improve on their early times, so Bianchi and the majority of the field spent the rest of the 30 minutes sat in the pits.
That left Grosjean third, but he will take a 10-place drop on the grid for causing a collision at the start of the Valencia sprint race two weeks ago.
That means that the second row will be occupied by the Racing Engineering cars of Christian Vietoris and Dani Clos, with Max Chilton the top home driver in fifth for Carlin.
The mid-session rain did leave a few expected frontrunners much further down the grid than they would have hoped.
Luca Filippi went through the gravel at Club corner early in the session and ended up 17th, while Giedo van der Garde's miserable day continued as he was only 19th when the rain fell.
Fabio Leimer came off even worse than those two, having not set a time before the rain came down. That left him 25th, as Kevin Mirocha did not take part in the session due to a shoulder injury.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Jules Bianchi ART 1m58.531s 2. Alvaro Parente Carlin 1m58.971s + 0.440s 3. Romain Grosjean DAMS 1m59.020s + 0.489s 4. Christian Vietoris Racing Engineering 1m59.143s + 0.612s 5. Dani Clos Racing Engineering 1m59.881s + 1.350s 6. Max Chilton Carlin 1m59.952s + 1.421s 7. Marcus Ericsson iSport 2m00.044s + 1.513s 8. Esteban Gutierrez ART 2m00.109s + 1.578s 9. Sam Bird iSport 2m00.175s + 1.644s 10. Charles Pic Addax 2m00.223s + 1.692s 11. Johnny Cecotto Ocean 2m00.300s + 1.769s 12. Jolyon Palmer Arden 2m00.462s + 1.931s 13. Davide Valsecchi AirAsia 2m00.527s + 1.996s 14. Michael Herck Coloni 2m00.529s + 1.998s 15. Julian Leal Rapax 2m00.927s + 2.396s 16. Pal Varhaug DAMS 2m01.203s + 2.672s 17. Luca Filippi Super Nova 2m01.315s + 2.784s 18. Kevin Ceccon Coloni 2m01.816s + 3.285s 19. Giedo van der Garde Addax 2m01.894s + 3.363s 20. Luiz Razia AirAsia 2m01.922s + 3.391s 21. Stefano Coletti Trident 2m02.681s + 4.150s 22. Josef Kral Arden 2m02.800s + 4.269s 23. Rodolfo Gonzalez Trident 2m03.268s + 4.737s 24. Fairuz Fauzy Super Nova 2m04.518s + 5.987s 25. Fabio Leimer Rapax 2m08.608s + 10.077s 26. Kevin Mirocha Ocean
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