German recovers from spin at Donington to top the timesheets in qualifying
Germany’s Tobias Hegewald has taken pole for tomorrow’s first F2 race at Donington Park, after recovering from a high-speed excursion earlier in the session at Redgate corner. Russia’s Mikhail Aleshin finished in second position, with championship leader Andy Soucek in third.
Milo Pavlović, Edoardo Piscopo and Kazim Vasiliauskas all briefly held top stop in the early stages, until a mid-session change of tyres led to several changes in the running order.
Aleshin took his turn at the top, going quickest after a solid double flying lap run, whilst Julien Jousse slotted into second. The top three were separated by less than a tenth of a second until Hegewald blew the opposition away with just over ten minutes of the session remaining. The 20-year-old’s lap of 1:23.486s would not be beaten for the remainder of the session.
After struggling last time out at Brands Hatch, Hegewald will be hoping to repeat his Spa-Francorchamps form, where the German took two pole positions, two wins and set two fastest laps, thrusting himself into championship contention in the process.
Spaniard Andy Soucek moved into third during the final five minutes, whilst Hegewald spun again. The pole-sitter lost control at Goddards, but he wasn’t alone in being caught out at the slow final turn. Pietro Gandolfi, Jolyon Palmer and Jens Höing also spun there, but it was an off for Jack Clark at Coppice that eventually brought out the red flags with less than two minutes to go.
Jousse hung on to fourth in the end, ahead of Pavlović and Piscopo. Kazim Vasiliauskas, who set the seventh fastest time, will be demoted two places on the grid following an infringement in free practice this morning.
Sebastian Hohenthal and Robert Wickens had to settle for eighth and ninth respectively – the pair were unable to improve upon times set earlier in the session after suffering problems. Brands Hatch race winner Philipp Eng rounded out the top ten.
Tobias Hegewald said: "I’m really happy to be back in the top three for qualifying. I had a lot of problems in the test and free practice, but we worked on the car and I worked on myself – that’s why we have ended up where we are. Of course when you are on pole you always want to win – you never know what is going to happen in the race, but of course victory is the target for me tomorrow."
Qualifying 1 Provisional Classification:
1. Tobias Hegewald, 1:23.116s
2. Mikhail Aleshin, +0.313s
3. Andy Soucek, +0.321s
4. Julien Jousse, +0.344s
5. Milo Pavlović, +0.426s
6. Edoardo Piscopo, +0.507s
7. Kazim Vasiliauskas, +0.583s
8. Sebastian Hohenthal, +0.586s
9. Robert Wickens, +0.712s
10. Philipp Eng, +0.823s