Van Der Garde Claims GP2 Pole At Wet Hockenheim

Giedo van der Garde scored his second pole position of the GP2 Series season with the fastest time in a rainy qualifying session at Hockenheim.

The Caterham Racing driver got his best effort of 1m44.002s in just before the conditions got worse. Although the drivers returned to the track later in the 30 minute session, their times did not match those from earlier on.

Van der Garde's lap was 0.012s quicker than second-fastest James Calado. The Brit rookie will not start on the front row however, as he has a ten-place grid penalty from the last race at Silverstone.

That will promote Fabio Leimer to second place on the grid, giving the Swiss driver another chance to claim his first win of the season after he was robbed of victory in Silverstone by a safety car period before he had made his pitstop. Leimer's time was more than nine tenths slower than van der Garde's.

Nigel Melker continued his strong form from Silverstone to set the fourth fastest time, just ahead of Fabio Onidi. Practice pacesetter and title contender Davide Valsecchi was sixth, and will share the third row of the grid with his DAMS teammate Felipe Nasr.

Melker's Ocean Racing Technology teammate Victor Guerin was a surprising eighth quickest, a tenth quicker than Esteban Gutierrez, who has an identical penalty to that of his Lotus GP teammate Calado.

Points leader Luiz Razia managed only the tenth fastest time, but the penalties will bring him up to eighth, three places behind his rival Valsecchi.

11^th quickest was Max Chilton, ahead of the returning Tom Dillmann. Calado will start behind those two in 11^th, while debutant Sergio Canamasas will start from an impressive 12^th place.

14^th fastest was Marcus Ericsson, ahead of Stefano Coletti, Nathanael Berthon and Simon Trummer. Johnny Cecotto and Rio Haryanto will share the ninth row, with Gutierrez set to start 19^th. Josef Kral was 20^th, while Jolyon Palmer was a lowly 21^st.

Trident pair Stephane Richelmi and Julian Leal will start 22^nd and 23^rd, while van der Garde's Caterham teammate Rodolfo Gonzalez was only 24^th. Ricardo Teixeira was a second off the 107% time, while Giancarlo Serenelli did not take part after his heavy qualifying shunt.

The feature race takes place at 14:40 BST.