Qualifying – Maldonado on pole, Grosjean 11th (only?)

Pastor Maldonado created a surprise this Friday evening in Barcelona by securing pole position for the first GP2 Series race. This is the second of his career, thus starting off the European season in a great way for the Piquet Sport team.

The team performed very well since Zuber is in 3rd place but more than 6 tenths behind his teammate in pole position. Between the two drivers comes Alvaro Parente, last year’s winner of the World Series by Renault.

Bruno Senna set the 4th fastest qualifying time ahead of Pantano (Racing Engineering) and Valles (FMS). Karun Chandhock, despite his accident this morning in free practice, is 7th. “He wasn’t at 100%,” commented his team director at Isport.

Petrov, Villa, and Conway complete the top 10.

On the French side, Romain Grosjean, winner of the first edition of the GP2 Asia, secured the 11th fastest time for his debut in the European GP2 series. He showed encouraging times for the rest of the season with the new GP2 2008 single-seater.

His teammate at Art GP, Luca Filippi, is 14th, more than two-tenths behind the Frenchman, who also suffered a major engine failure just minutes before the end of the session.

The most impressive red flag of the session was caused by Sébastien Buemi. The Swiss driver wanted to avoid a stationary car and drove at high speed over a curb. While coming off the track, he hit a bump and nearly rolled over. He got away with a few bruises and the 20th fastest time.

Finally, Valerio and Kobayashi were surprisingly aggressive today. The two drivers ended up side by side, which then led to Valerio’s accident. What followed was just a series of vulgar gestures.

The two DPR drivers complete the walk. Ricci is dead last after attending his first GP2 Series qualifying in 4 years.

Qualifying Results – 2008 Spanish GP