SamBird

Bird bags pole in Spa—

RUSSIAN TIME driver quickest in qualifying– 

Sam Bird is a happy man: the Brit was quickest in today’s qualification in Spa pocketing his first pole position of the season with a laptime of 1:56.957 set in the first ten minutes of the session. Fabio Leimer and James Calado completed the top 3.

The session opened under blue skies and on a dry track which meant all twenty-six drivers could put their Pirelli Soft tyres to the test of the Belgium track. Johnny Cecotto set the early pace, but Marcus Ericsson bettered the Venezuelan’s time to claim top spot. Calado improved as well and went four tenths quicker than the Swede. It was then Leimer’s turn to go fastest, one tenth better than the Brit 

However, Bird put his head down and found the extra pace to sit pretty at the top of the timing sheet with a laptime two tenths quicker than the Swiss. At the mid-session and as the drivers returned to the pits for a fresh pair of rubbers, Bird, Leimer and Calado were still top three ahead of Alexander Rossi and Jolyon Palmer. 

When the action resumed, Leimer improved slightly, but not enough to dethrone Bird who bagged pole at the chequered flag. Calado was unable to better his personal best and remained third. In the final stages of the session, Marcus Ericsson managed to move up to P4 ahead of Rossi. Nathanaël Berthon, Palmer Stéphane Richelmi, Sergio Canmasas (who will be dropped ten places following a grid penalty picked up in Budapest Sprint Race) and Felipe Nasr completed the top ten.

 

Spa-Francorchamps – Qualifying

  Driver Team Laptime Laps
1. Sam Bird RUSSIAN TIME 1:56.957 9
2. Fabio Leimer Racing Engineering 1:57.156 9
3. James Calado ART Grand Prix 1:57.404 9
4. Marcus Ericsson DAMS 1:57.538 9
5. Alexander Rossi EQ8 Caterham Racing 1:57.578 11
6. Nathanaël Berthon Trident Racing 1:57.588 10
7. Jolyon Palmer Carlin 1:57.691 9
8. Stéphane Richelmi DAMS 1:57.802 10
9. Sergio Canamasas EQ8 Caterham Racing 1:57.804 11
10. Felipe Nasr Carlin 1:57.839 10
11. Robin Frijns Hilmer Motorsport 1:57.881 10
12. Julian Leal Racing Engineering 1:57.924 9
13. Tom Dillmann RUSSIAN TIME 1:57.950 10
14. Mitch Evans Arden International 1:58.271 11
15. Simon Trummer Rapax 1:58.384 11
16. Dani Clos MP Motorsport 1:58.385 11
17. Johnny Cecotto Arden International 1:58.419 10
18. Rio Haryanto Barwa Addax Team 1:58.463 10
19 Adrian Quaife-Hobbs Hilmer Motorsport 1:58.534 8
20. Stefano Coletti Rapax 1:58.618 10
21. Daniel De Jong MP Motorsport 1:58.789 9
22. Rene Binder Venezuela GP Lazarus 1:58.803 10
23. Vittorio Ghirelli Venezuela GP Lazarus 1:58.831 10
24. Daniel Abt ART Grand Prix 1:59.022 13
25. Jake Rosenzweig Barwa Addax Team 1:59.253 10
26. Ricardo Teixeira Trident Racing 2:17.528 3