Robert Wickens will start this weekend's first race of the Formula 2 season from the front after claiming pole position in qualifying this afternoon. The 20-year-old Canadian set his best time early in the session, on his first run on new tires, and edged out Tobias Hegewald for the top spot by just 0.014sec.
"I've been relatively quick all through testing and practice, and it's nice to say that I got the first pole of the year," said Wickens. "But it's still just the first race of a long season so I've got to get my head down and focus on the rest of the weekend."
Andy Soucek improved his time on his final run to pip Carlos Iaconelli to third on the grid by an even smaller margin - just 0.002sec, but the Spaniard was disappointed to miss out on pole after going quickest in practice this morning.
Things got closer still on what will be the third row of the grid as Mikhail Aleshin and Julien Jousse set exactly the same time to claim fifth and sixth places, just ahead of final practice pacesetter Edoardo Piscopo.
It was a closely fought first qualifying session throughout the field with the top 15 cars qualifying within one second of the pole position time.