Monaco – Qualifying: Sirotkin’s best spot, Nato in ambush
Sergey Sirotkin took a crucial pole position on the streets of the Principality. After a hard-fought battle, the ART Grand Prix driver edged out the two Racing Engineering drivers: Frenchman Norman Nato ahead of Jordan King.
Already the fastest in free practice, Sergey Sirotkin continued his fine form by securing pole position for the Monaco round of the GP2 Series.
Divided into two groups of eleven drivers, the Russian managed to excel in the final moments of Group B to set a benchmark of 1:19.186, ahead of Norman Nato who had taken the lead in Group A. The local driver (from Cannes) will nevertheless start on the front row of the main race, which will begin at 11:15.
As soon as Group A, composed of drivers with odd numbers, a great battle took place for the best provisional time. Championship leader Pierre Gasly initially set the best mark, but Alex Lynn, Mitch Evans, and then Norman Nato successively moved to the top. With a time of 1:19.984, the winner of the long race in Barcelona did the job. He was ahead of Lynn, Evans, as well as Marciello, Ghiotto, Matsushita, Kirchhöfer.
Pierre Gasly, on the other hand, fell to eighth position. To top it all, the Prema Racing driver was even placed under investigation by the stewards after ignoring the call for weighing.
In Group B, composed of even-numbered drivers, the track conditions remained unchanged.
Quick at the start of the session, Sergio Canamasas got tangled up by hitting the barriers… and in turn ignoring the weighing!
But the fastest man was indeed Sergey Sirotkin, who was the first to break the 1:20 barrier. Briefly overtaken by Jordan King, who set a time of 1:19.656, the Russian pulled out all the stops at the very end of the session.
Before that, the session was briefly halted when Artem Markelov missed the first braking zone and ended up at Sainte Dévote. The clock was stopped for a few moments before resuming. There were then three minutes and forty-eight seconds remaining. A sufficient time for Sergey Sirotkin to impress the crowd with this final lap time of 1:19.186 achieved on the last flying lap!
Pole position in Monaco for Sirotkin, his second personal pole in the series after achieving it at Silverstone in July 2015. Due to the alternating Group 1-Group 2 system, Jordan King will start only in third position, behind Norman Nato.
Poleman!!! @sirotkin_sergey @GP2_Official pic.twitter.com/AK364xXDfK
— ART Grand Prix (@ARTGP) 26 mai 2016
Here is the complete ranking of this qualifying session:
| Driver | Team | Time | |
| 1 | S. Sirotkin | ART Grand Prix | 1:19:186 |
| 2 | N. Nato | Racing Engineering | 1:19:894 |
| 3 | J. King | Racing Engineering | 1:19:691 |
| 4 | M. Evans | Campos Racing | 1:19:962 |
| 5 | O. Rowland | MP Motorsport | 1:19:852 |
| 6 | A. Lynn | DAMS | 1:20:014 |
| 7 | A. Giovinazzi | PREMA Racing | 1:19:972 |
| 8 | R. Marciello | RUSSIAN TIME | 1:20:601 |
| 9 | N. Latifi | DAMS | 1:20:182 |
| 10 | L. Ghiotto | Trident Racing | 1:20:630 |
| 11 | A. Pic | Rapax | 1:20:360 |
| 12 | N. Matsushita | ART Grand Prix | 1:20:744 |
| 13 | S. Canamasas | Carlin | 1:20:600 |
| 14 | M. Kirchhofer | Carlin | 1:21:016 |
| 15 | S. Gelael | Campos Racing | 1:20:877 |
| 16 | P. Gasly | PREMA Racing | 1:21:381 |
| 17 | A. Markelov | RUSSIAN TIME | 1:22:160 |
| 18 | G. Malja | Rapax | 1:21:965 |
| 19 | P. Armand | Trident Racing | 1:22:707 |
| 20 | D. de Jong | MP Motorsport | 1:21:978 |
| 21 | N. Jeffri | Arden International | 1:22:722 |
| 22 | J. Eriksson | Arden International | 1:22:029 |
