Nico Hulkenberg has taken his first GP2 Series pole position in a closely-fought qualifying session at Istanbul Park today.
The ART rookie's 1m34.404s lap came in the final minutes and proved just beyond the reach of Super Nova's Luca Filippi and championship leader Romain Grosjean, who both fell short by just over a tenth of a second.
Grosjean's Barwa Addax teammate Vitaly Petrov was the benchmark for most of the half-hour session but was forced to watch the final minutes from the side of the track after his car stopped at Turn 7 with a mechanical problem.
His best time was still good enough to keep him on the second row, with Karun Chandhok and Andi Zuber to line up behind him.
Some of the regular frontrunners have their work cut out in tomorrow's race after a disappointing afternoon. Pastor Maldonado lost his chance to improve in 13th after he stopped with what appeared to be an engine problem late in the session, while Racing Engineering's Lucas di Grassi could manage no better than 14th.
TIMES:
Pos Driver Team Time Gap
1. Nico Hulkenberg ART 1m34.404s
2. Luca Filippi Super Nova 1m34.515s +0.111
3. Romain Grosjean Barwa Addax 1m34.587s +0.183
4. Vitaly Petrov Barwa Addax 1m34.713s +0.309
5. Karun Chandhok Ocean 1m34.762s +0.358
6. Andreas Zuber FMS 1m34.922s +0.518
7. Alvaro Parente Ocean 1m35.017s +0.613
8. Javier Villa Super Nova 1m35.020s +0.616
9. Roldan Rodriguez Piquet 1m35.105s +0.701
10. Davide Valsecchi Durango 1m35.113s +0.709
11. Alberto Valerio Piquet 1m35.141s +0.737
12. Giedo van der Garde iSport 1m35.151s +0.747
13. Pastor Maldonado ART 1m35.193s +0.789
14. Lucas di Grassi Racing Engineering 1m35.226s +0.822
15. Edoardo Mortara Arden 1m35.284s +0.880
16. Davide Rigon Trident 1m35.328s +0.924
17. Kamui Kobayashi DAMS 1m35.360s +0.956
18. Diego Nunes iSport 1m35.395s +0.991
19. Jerome D'Ambrosio DAMS 1m35.412s +1.008
20. Luiz Razia FMS 1m35.806s +1.402
21. Giacomo Ricci DPR 1m35.850s +1.446
22. Daniel Clos Racing Engineering 1m35.974s +1.570
23. Nelson Panciatici Durango 1m36.031s +1.627
24. Sergio Perez Arden 1m36.051s +1.647
25. Michael Herck DPR 1m36.111s +1.707
26. Ricardo Teixeira Trident 1m37.278s +2.874