Glock takes pole in home country

Timo Glock has put his championship aspirations back on track by claiming a dominant pole position for tomorrow’s race one in front of his home fans at the Nurburgring.

The German looked strong throughout the session before shutting down challenges in the closing minutes from Lucas di Grassi and Giorgio Pantano with a laptime of 1:40.977, which was more than half a second ahead of the Brazilian‘s best time.

After this morning’s damp free practice all eyes were on the sky ahead of the session, but the clouds kept away and greeted the drivers with bright sunshine as they came out on track.

Glock set the early running and kept eating away at his own best lap, with Mike Conway, Luca Filippi and Pastor Maldonado pushing him in the early stages of the session: the German was just 0.02 to the good as the majority of the field came in for their second set of tires.

Di Grassi came out with clear intent of taking his first pole position, claiming the top spot with a 1:41.597 and setting the fastest first sector on the next lap before getting stuck behind a slowing Xandi Negrao.

But the German was not to be denied, immediately responding with a time one tenth quicker again and then pushing on from there. Teammate Andi Zuber was also pushing hard to get on terms with Glock, but a wayward trip through the gravel at turn 11 put paid to a promising time.

As the session was coming to a close both di Grassi and Pantano put in fast laps, but Glock had them covered with his fastest lap of the session with just 2 minutes remaining, claiming two more points to double his current championship lead.

Behind the top three Adrian Zaugg, Zuber, Kazuki Nakajima and Adam Carroll were among the ten men within a second of pole, with all bar three of the drivers within two seconds of the top spot.

Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Glock iSport International 1:40.977 13
2. di Grassi ART Grand Prix 1:41.537 + 0.560 13
3. Pantano Campos Grand Prix 1:41.673 + 0.696 13
4. Zaugg Arden International 1:41.721 + 0.744 13
5. Zuber iSport International 1:41.757 + 0.780 13
6. Nakajima DAMS 1:41.830 + 0.853 16
7. Carroll FMS International 1:41.866 + 0.889 11
8. Maldonado Trident Racing 1:41.963 + 0.986 15
9. Conway Super Nova International 1:41.964 + 0.987 11
10. Filippi Super Nova International 1:42.075 + 1.098 6
11. Buemi ART Grand Prix 1:42.155 + 1.178 13
12. Soucek DPR 1:42.348 + 1.371 14
13. Rodriguez Minardi Piquet Sports 1:42.356 + 1.379 15
14. Hirate Trident Racing 1:42.368 + 1.391 13
15. Villa Racing Engineering 1:42.395 + 1.418 14
16. Senna Arden International 1:42.497 + 1.520 14
17. Negrao Minardi Piquet Sports 1:42.529 + 1.552 12
18. Petrov Campos Grand Prix 1:42.775 + 1.798 13
19. Viso Racing Engineering 1:42.860 + 1.883 13
20. Yamamoto BCN Competicion 1:42.860 + 1.883 13
21. Lapierre DAMS 1:42.898 + 1.921 13
22. Tung BCN Competicion 1:42.976 + 1.999 15
23. Garcia Durango 1:42.983 + 2.006 14
24. Tahinci FMS International 1:43.563 + 2.586 12
25. Chandhok Durango 1:43.862 + 2.885 12
26. Bakkerud DPR 1:44.099 + 3.122 11