Wickens on pole again in the rain

Date published : 19 Jun 2011 - 09:10:52

Carlin's Robert Wickens mastered a drenched qualifying session at the Nurburgring to claim his second pole position of the Formula Renault 3.5 weekend.Wickens was a commanding 0.583 seconds faster than Gravity-Charouz racer Brendon Hartley. Both drivers were part of a minority who improved their times after the session was restarted with three minutes remaining.Walter Grubmuller had prompted the red flags after finding the tyre wall at the final corner. The Austrian exited his P1 Motorsport car unaided but an ambulance was sent to the scene when Grubmuller appeared to be in discomfort.Jean-Eric Vergne was supreme in the early stages, but was demoted from top spot by his team-mate Wickens after 20 minutes of the half-hour session.The Frenchman later demonstrated how much effort he was exerting in a bid to wrestle the position back when the rear of his car broke away on the entry to the Ford Kurve. Vergne survived the moment but took to the escape road at the Veedol chicane later on the lap.Vergne ended the morning shading Epic Racing's Albert Costa by 0.009s to head the second row of the grid for this afternoon's race.Monaco winner Daniel Ricciardo (ISR) was fifth, a tenth of a second up on KMP Racing's Nelson Panciatici, who suffered a puncture after contact with Fairuz Fauzy in race one.Today's fourth row is set to be all-Fortec affair. Alexander Rossi spun early in the session at the Ford Kurve, but the American skilfully avoided the Nurburgring's tyre barriers to take seventh place, and team honours, ahead of Cesar Ramos.Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Robert Wickens Carlin 2m04.009s 2. Brendon Hartley Gravity-Charouz 2m04.552s + 0.543s 3. Jean-Eric Vergne Carlin 2m04.848s + 0.839s 4. Albert Costa Epic 2m04.857s + 0.848s 5. Daniel Ricciardo ISR 2m05.087s + 1.078s 6. Nelson Panciatici KMP 2m05.187s + 1.178s 7. Alexander Rossi Fortec 2m05.462s + 1.453s 8. Cesar Ramos Fortec 2m05.621s + 1.612s 9. Daniel Zampieri BVM Target 2m05.785s + 1.776s10. Nathanael Berthon ISR 2m05.946s + 1.937s11. Daniil Move P1 2m06.225s + 2.216s12. Jake Rosenzweig Mofaz 2m06.492s + 2.483s13. Kevin Korjus Tech 1 2m06.517s + 2.508s14. Fairuz Fauzy Mofaz 2m06.526s + 2.517s15. Daniel de Jong Comtec 2m06.578s + 2.569s16. Anton Nebylitskiy KMP 2m06.697s + 2.688s17. Stephane Richelmi Draco 2m06.862s + 2.853s18. Andre Negrao Draco 2m06.866s + 2.857s19. Walter Grubmuller P1 2m06.955s + 2.946s20. Arthur Pic Tech 1 2m07.280s + 3.271s21. Sergio Canamasas BVM Target 2m07.330s + 3.321s22. Sten Pentus Epic 2m07.478s + 3.469s23. Oliver Webb Pons 2m07.924s + 3.915s24. Jan Charouz Gravity-Charouz 2m08.558s + 4.549s25. Daniel McKenzie Comtec 2m08.591s + 4.582s26. Michael Herck Pons 2m10.297s + 6.288s