Germany: Pantano storms to GP2 pole
The Italian's best lap of 1:21.650 put him three tenths ahead of his nearest rivals in the first half of the session, and with temperatures dropping as time passed, his rivals were unable to respond on track.
The session opened under blue skies, prompting all of the drivers to get out on track immediately to set banker laps: Zuber, Bruno Senna, Pantano and Grosjean set the early running when they were able to find a hole in the traffic, but Pantano stayed out for one lap longer than most of his rivals and was able to take advantage of the clear track to set his best lap of the session, before spinning on the next lap and coming back to the pits for fresh tires.
With ten minutes remaining all bar Pantano had re-emerged onto the track, but with clouds closing in over the circuit the temperature dropped immediately and, despite everyone's best efforts, there was no chance of improving for anyone in the top half of the timesheet, leaving Grosjean unable to match his top spot from this morning's practice session.
Behind the top three Sébastien Buemi, Lucas di Grassi, Senna, Alvaro Parente, Kamui Kobayashi, Javier Villa and Vitaly Petrov rounded out the first four rows for tomorrow's grid, with the top ten places within a second of pole raising the possibility of a thrilling race one tomorrow afternoon.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Pantano Racing Engineering 1:21.650 14
2. Grosjean ART Grand Prix 1:21.934 + 0.284 13
3. Zuber Piquet Sports 1:22.004 + 0.354 14
4. Buemi Trust Team Arden 1:22.171 + 0.521 15
5. Di Grassi Barwa Campos Team 1:22.172 + 0.522 14
6. Senna iSport International 1:22.216 + 0.566 16
7. Parente Super Nova Racing 1:22.391 + 0.741 15
8. Kobayashi Dams 1:22.459 + 0.809 17
9. Villa Racing Engineering 1:22.560 + 0.910 16
10. Petrov Barwa Campos Team 1:22.587 + 0.937 12
11. Chandhok iSport International 1:22.759 + 1.109 17
12. Yamamoto ART Grand Prix 1:22.788 + 1.138 17
13. Filippi Trust Team Arden 1:22.802 + 1.152 15
14. D’Ambrosio Dams 1:22.907 + 1.257 18
15. Maldonado Piquet Sports 1:22.969 + 1.319 17
16. Soucek Super Nova Racing 1:22.992 + 1.342 17
17. Tung Trident Racing 1:23.264 + 1.614 16
18. Valsecchi Durango 1:23.320 + 1.670 15
19. Valerio Durango 1:23.378 + 1.728 18
20. Conway Trident Racing 1:23.433 + 1.783 19
21. Nunes DPR 1:23.434 + 1.784 14
22. Rodriguez FMS International 1:23.497 + 1.847 15
23. Iaconelli BCN Competicion 1:23.913 + 2.263 16
24. Asmer FMS International 1:24.011 + 2.361 16
25. Valles BCN Competicion 1:24.273 + 2.623 12
26. Herck DPR 1:24.641 + 2.991 16