Christopher Zanella clinches Nurburgring pole by 0.003s 27.05.2012: Swiss ahead of Marinescu and Tuscher after closely fought session Christopher Zanella will line up on pole for today's (Sunday

Swiss ahead of Marinescu and Tuscher after closely fought session



Christopher Zanella will line up on pole for today's (Sunday) second Formula Two race at the Nűrburgring after clinching pole by a mere 0.003 seconds.


The 22-year-old Swiss, who battled his way to a superb podium yesterday from P7, posted a best time of 1:45.590s towards the end of the session with yesterday's race winner Mihai Marinescu just missing out on another pole with P2. Swiss teenager Mathéo Tuscher secured the third spot during the closely fought 30-minute session which saw the top 10 lapping inside a second.


Drivers were met with bright but cloudy conditions for the start of the 30-minute session with Zanella setting the early pace lapping in the low 1:47s. David Zhu and Alex Fontana were also looking quick for the session in which drivers have use of their overboost system, increasing the power output of their F2 car to 500bhp.


Dino Zamparelli then went top and into the 1:46s with championship leader Luciano Bacheta and Parthiva Sureshwaren following suit. The Brit didn't remain there for long though as Bacheta laid down a 1:45.977s to secure provisional pole, before Tuscher and then Zanella went even quicker with a blistering lap - almost 2.5s quicker than the 2011 pole time - which remained unbeaten for the rest of the session.


Marinescu came extremely close though with his best lap just a fraction shy while just outside the top three, German Markus Pommer put in late lap dash to secure fourth with Bacheta settling for P5.


Fontana and Zhu secured sixth and seventh places respectively while Daniel McKenzie was unable to repeat his P3 start from yesterday, instead beginning this afternoon's race eighth ahead of Kevin Mirocha. Zamparelli completed the top 10 with Sureshwaren narrowly missing out in 11th.


Speaking afterwards Zanella said: "I learnt a lot from yesterday's race and was able to improve even more today with my pace. I might have to push a bit more at the start to make sure I get out of the Boost Zones but the strategy will be very similar to yesterday. We will start from first but the race is very long and anything can happen."


Today's second Formula Two race takes place at 14:30 (local time) with live coverage on Motors TV and the F2 website.



F2 Results: Nűrburgring, Qualifying 2:


1. Christopher Zanella, 1:45.590s
2. Mihai Marinescu, +0.003s
3. Mathéo Tuscher, +0.147s
4. Markus Pommer, +0.304s
5. Luciano Bacheta, +0.387s
6. Alex Fontana, +0.405s
7. David Zhu, +0.419s
8. Daniel McKenzie, +0.536s
9. Kevin Mirocha, +0.748s
10. Dino Zamparelli, +0.814s
11. Parthiva Sureshwaren, +1.047s
12. Hector Hurst, +1.086s
13. Mauro Calamia, +1.528s
14. Plamen Kralev, +1.604s
15. Max Snegirev, +1.633s
16. Axcil Jefferies, +2.250s


 Mark Phillips -  photo Formula 2