Auto GP

Quaife-Hobbs Beats Pizzonia To Top Friday Sessions In Curitiba

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Adrian Quaife-Hobbs - Photo Credit: Auto GP

Adrian Quaife-Hobbs made a fast start to a weekend in which he can wrap up the Auto GP title, beating home favourite and series debutant Antonio Pizzonia to top spot in both Friday practice sessions at Curitiba.

Kent ace Quaife-Hobbs was more than half a second clear of the rest of the 12-car field in first practice, while former Formula 1 racer Pizzonia quickly adapted to his Ombra Racing-run car to go second fastest.

Third was 16-year-old Russian Sergey Sirotkin, eight tenths off the pace. Pal Varhaug and Chris van der Drift recorded identical times in fourth and fifth, exactly nine tenths off Quaife-Hobbs.

Sixth was Sergio Campana, who has switched from MLR71 to Euronova this weekend in place of Antonio Spavone. He edged out Daniel De Jong, who is continuing with his Auto GP campaign this weekend after racing in the GP2 rounds in Valencia and Silverstone.

Max Snegirev was eighth, ahead of Pizzonia's new teammate and fellow Brazilian Rafael Suzuki, a regular in Japanese F3.

In the second session, Quaife-Hobbs improved from the 1m12.767s he set in the first session to a 1m12.630s.

Again second quickest, Pizzonia was this time 0.208s adrift. Four hundredths of a second behind was Varhaug with De Jong close behind in fourth ahead of his Manor MP Motorsport teammate and driver coach van der Drift.

Snegirev was sixth, ahead of Giuseppe Cipriani and Suzuki. Campana's session came to an abrupt end when he crashed at the final turn, bringing out the red flags for a lengthy stoppage. His teammate Sirotkin did not take part in the second session due to a gearbox issue.

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Peter joined the TCF team in September 2010 and covers GP2 and GP3 along with WTCC and Formula Two. You can find him on twitter at @PeteAllen_
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