Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Global
Qualifying report

Austria GP2: Vandoorne takes record-breaking pole

Stoffel Vandoorne led an ART Grand Prix one-two in GP2 qualifying at the Red Bull Ring to establish a new record of seven career pole positions in the series.

Stoffel Vandoorne, ART Grand Prix

Stoffel Vandoorne, ART Grand Prix

GP2 Series Media Service

Stoffel Vandoorne, ART Grand Prix
Stoffel Vandoorne, ART Grand Prix
Nobuharu Matsushita, ART Grand Prix
Pierre Gasly, DAMS
Sergey Sirotkin, Rapax

The McLaren junior driver spent the first part of the session duelling with practice pacesetter Sergey Sirotkin, the pair at one stage recording identical laptimes of 1m14.721s before the Russian gained the upper hand with an effort 0.035s faster.

In the closing minutes, Sirotkin improved further still to reach a 1m14.434s, before Vandoorne responded in fine style to move back into the top slot with a 1m14.174s to clinch his third pole in four races in 2015.

His seventh career GP2 pole also moves him one clear of Nelson Piquet Jr and Giorgio Pantano in the all-time list.

Nobuharu Matushita was then able to improve to a time just 0.089s shy of Vandoorne to make it an all-ART front row, with DAMS driver Pierre Gasly also showing strong pace to move into third late on, just over a tenth away from the pace.

That demoted Sirotkin to fourth ahead of Rio Haryanto, with Raffaele Marciello just two thousandths slower than the Indonesian in sixth place.

Nick Yelloly and Jordan King made it an all-British fourth row, ahead of Arthur Pic and Alex Lynn, who ran as high as third earlier in the session before slipping down the order to tenth in the latter stages.

Qualifying results:

PosDriverTeamTimeGap
1 Stoffel Vandoorne ART Grand Prix 1:14.174  
2 Nobuharu Matsushita ART Grand Prix 1:14.263 0.089
3 Pierre Gasly DAMS 1:14.300 0.126
4 Sergey Sirotkin Rapax 1:14.434 0.260
5 Rio Haryanto Campos Racing 1:14.481 0.307
6 Raffaele Marciello Trident 1:14.483 0.309
7 Nick Yelloly Hilmer Motorsport 1:14.538 0.364
8 Jordan King Racing Engineering 1:14.574 0.400
9 Arthur Pic Campos Racing 1:14.650 0.476
10 Alex Lynn DAMS 1:14.818 0.644
11 Mitch Evans Russian Time 1:14.861 0.687
12 Alexander Rossi Racing Engineering 1:14.881 0.707
13 Julian Leal Carlin 1:14.893 0.719
14 Richie Stanaway Status Grand Prix 1:14.922 0.748
15 Artem Markelov Russian Time 1:14.978 0.804
16 Norman Nato Arden International 1:14.996 0.822
17 Rene Binder Trident 1:15.030 0.856
18 Daniel De Jong MP Motorsport 1:15.207 1.033
19 Robert Visoiu Rapax 1:15.396 1.222
20 Marlon Stockinger Status Grand Prix 1:15.434 1.260
21 Andre Negrao Arden International 1:15.537 1.363
22 Nathanael Berthon Lazarus 1:15.750 1.576
23 Marco Sorensen Carlin 1:15.853 1.679
24 Simon Trummer Hilmer Motorsport 1:16.159 1.985

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Austria GP2: Sirotkin on top in practice
Next article GP2 Austria: Vandoorne maintains 100% Feature Race win record

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Global