Sergey Sirotkin was fastest in qualifying for the Feature race of the Monaco weekend of the GP2 Series, with the Russian eager to forget about his Spanish weekend two weeks ago in the best possible manner.
In the split-qualifying sessions with odd and even numbered cars having their own sessions, Sirotkin placed his ART Grand Prix car at the top of the timing screens with a time of 1:19.186 in the second group, usurping the time set by Norman Nato in Group 1.
Nato has a previous victory around the Monaco circuit having triumphed for DAMS in Formula Renault 3.5 back in 2014, and continued his impressive start to the season with Racing Engineering with the front row grid slot.
Jordan King confirmed Racing Engineering’s pace with the second fastest time in Group 2 to take third on the grid, and he will be joined there by Mitch Evans of Campos Racing, who was second fastest to Nato in Group 2.
Row three will see reigning Formula Renault 3.5 Series champion Oliver Rowland of MP Motorsport line-up alongside DAMS’ Alex Lynn, while the fourth row sees Prema Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi alongside Raffaele Marciello of Russian Time. Nicholas Latifi of DAMS and Luca Ghiotto of Trident complete the top ten.
It was a disappointing session for championship leader Pierre Gasly, who, after being fastest in the early stages, dropped down the order due to brake failure on his Prema Racing machine, forcing him to sit out the session as the times tumbled.
Group 2 saw their session halted by a high-speed crash by Artem Markelov, with the Russian driver hitting the barriers at Ste Devote hard enough that they needed twenty minutes to be repaired. The Russian finished ninth fastest in his group and as thus qualifying seventeenth, just behind Gasly.
Norman Nato – Credit: Octane Photographic Ltd
Monaco Qualifying Result
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