Alex Lynn has secured his second pole position in the GP2 series by narrowly edging out championship leader Stoffel Vandoorne for the top spot.

The Briton registered a lap time of 2:01.840, just 0.038 seconds quicker than Vandoorne’s best effort. Alexander Rossi was three-tenths of a second behind in third position.

The qualifying session started with the entire field taking to a wet track on the full wet tyres, and although conditions were tricky the drivers did well to keep their cars out of the wall and mostly on the track.

Sergey Sirotkin and Richie Stanaway were early pace setters along with Andre Negrão while the lap times were beginning to fall. Then Rossi finally put a lap together to make an appearance at the top of the timesheets after running wide and braking too deep in previous attempts to post a flying lap.

As the track continued to evolve and a more consistent racing line appeared, the lap times started tumbling down from the mid 2:07s to 2:03s before the mid-session break.

Quite a few drivers opted to stay out during the break and continue posting fastest laps. Vandoorne was one of them, and he went to the top after breaking into the 2:02s.

Times continued to fall and the number of drivers occupying the top spot increased, with more than a quarter of the field having spent time on provisional pole.

Towards the end of the session Rossi put his Racing Engineering briefly in P1 until it was taken away by rival Vandoorne. The four points awarded to the driver who wins pole position could have almost sealed Vandoorne’s GP2 Series championship. Although Lynn was able to demoted the Belgian driver to second position with an impressively controlled lap.

His team-mate Pierre Gasly had to settle for fourth position after spending most of the session fighting for pole position. He will line up on the grid tomorrow ahead of fellow countrymen Arthur Pic, Johnny Cecotto, Raffaele Marciello and Stanaway in eighth.

The 30-lap Feature Race takes place at 16:40 local time (GMT +3).

2015 GP2 Series Russia – Qualifying Results
Driver Team / Entry Time Gap
1. Alex Lynn uk DAMS 2:01.840
2. Stoffel Vandoorne be ART Grand Prix 2:01.878 + 0.038
3. Alexander Rossi us Racing Engineering 2:02.141 + 0.301
4. Pierre Gasly fr DAMS 2:02.385 + 0.545
5. Arthur Pic fr Campos Racing 2:02.450 + 0.610
6. Johnny Cecotto Jr ve Trident 2:02.690 + 0.850
7. Raffaele Marciello it Trident 2:02.709 + 0.869
8. Richie Stanaway nz Status Grand Prix 2:02.998 + 1.158
9. Norman Nato fr Arden International 2:03.133 + 1.293
10. Sergey Sirotkin ru Rapax 2:03.223 + 1.383
11. André Negrão br Arden International 2:03.382 + 1.542
12. Nobuharu Matsushita jp ART Grand Prix 2:03.519 + 1.679
13. Rio Haryanto id Campos Racing 2:03.523 + 1.683
14. Jordan King* uk Racing Engineering 2:03.622 + 1.782
15. Nicholas Latifi ca MP Motorsport 2:03.731 + 1.891
16. Marlon Stöckinger ph Status Grand Prix 2:03.751 + 1.911
17. Artem Markelov ru Russian Time 2:04.004 + 2.164
18. Mitch Evans nz Russian Time 2:04.072 + 2.232
19. Dean Stoneman uk Carlin 2:04.093 + 2.253
20. Nathanael Berthon fr Daiko Team Lazarus 2:04.658 + 2.818
21. René Binder at MP Motorsport 2:04.994 + 3.154
22. Sergio Canamasas es Daiko Team Lazarus 2:04.998 + 3.158
23. Robert Vișoiu* ro Rapax 2:05.784 + 3.944
24. Sean Galeal id Carlin 2:08.361 + 6.521

* Post-Qualifying grid penalties:

  • Jordan King, who provisionally qualified fourteenth-fastest, will serve a five-place grid penalty as punishment for causing an avoidable collision with Norman Nato during the Sprint Race at Monza.
  • Robert Vișoiu, who provisionally qualified 23rd-fastest, will serve a five-place grid penalty as punishment for causing an avoidable collision with Alexander Rossi during the Sprint Race at Monza. As he is unable to serve the full grid penalty, it is expected that he will start the Feature Race from the pit lane.

Images via GP2 Series Media

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