Davide Valsecchi denied Pastor Maldonado pole position for tomorrow's GP2 Series feature race at Istanbul with a superb lap in the final seconds of qualifying today. Maldonado had held the top spot for two thirds of the session, but Valsecchi's final lap of 1m34.860s was enough to dislodge the Rapax driver by just 0.015secs.
Moments before Valsecchi completed his pole lap, teammate Oliver Turvey pulled a similar trick to launch himself from 10th to third, completing a good afternoon for the iSport team. Current points leader Sergio Perez will start from fourth for Addax alongside ART's Sam Bird, with Perez's teammate Giedo van der Garde and Dani Clos (Racing Engineering) just behind them.
Of the rest, Super Nova rookie Josef Kral had a decent shot at a top 10 start when he found himself alone on the track for three laps during the middle of the session, but the Czech overcooked it at Turn 8 and tank-slapped the tire wall, bringing his day to an early end and consigning himself to starting 17th.