Bianchi stripped of Barcelona pole

Date published : 20 May 2011 - 18:25:10

Jules Bianchi has been stripped of his pole position for the first GP2 race at Barcelona for ignoring yellow flags. The ART driver has received a 10-place grid because he improved his time in the second sector of the lap when yellow flags were waving after Fabio Leimer's Rapax car broke down coming out of Turn 5. Bianchi did not deny that he was pushing on the lap where he committed the offence, but he claimed that the lap he improved upon was not a representative time to be compared with. "I did go faster, because it was my first pushing lap," Bianchi told AUTOSPORT. "The lap before was just a warm-up, so of course I was faster." When asked if he thought the penalty was fair, the Frenchman simply responded with: "So-so." The penalty for Bianchi promotes Giedo van der Garde to his first career pole position in GP2, while joint championship leader Sam Bird moves up to the front row.