A heart-stopping Qualifying session crowned Rio Haryanto as the poleman of the Brno Auto GP round.

The Indonesian driver, who is just 18, confirmed the competitiveness of the Series' rookies posting a time of 1'42"985 that allowed him to beat Luca Filippi by just half a tenth. It's an impressive laptime that beats the 2010 pole by more than 0.8, proving how big was the improvement coming from the 2011 updates.

The session was really hard-fought with 6 drivers packed in just 3 tenths, and disturbed by some light rain drizzles that anyway were never enough to really make the track wet. In this treacherous conditions all the drivers went to their limit and even beyond, like Filippi who spun his car at Turn 6 with 8 minutes go. The Italian driver managed to get back on track and posted a laptime that was good for the first row.

Third place went to Kevin Ceccon, confirming his great shape and feeling with the Auto GP car, stopping the clocks on a 1'43"119 that allowed him to beat Fabrizio Crestani by just 0.03! Just 0.150 adrift from pole, the Lazarus driver was 4th, followed by Jon Lancaster who gave a good finish to his debut day in Auto GP. Fabio Onidi will start besides him tomorrow on 3rd row thanks to an 1'43"277, while 4th row will see Samuele Buttarelli starting agead of Sergei Afanesiev.

Closing the top ten were Bruno Mendez and Adrien Tambay, while Giovanni Venturini is in P11, slowed by understeer issues that he hopes to solve in time for the Race 1.

Saturday 18 June, Qualifying

1 Rio HARYANTO Dams 1:42.985
2 Luca FILIPPI Supernova Racing 1:43.040
3 Kevin CECCON Ombra Racing 1:43.119
4 Fabrizio CRESTANI Lazarus 1:43.151
5 Jon LANCASTER Supernova Racing 1:43.190
6 Fabio ONIDI Lazarus 1:43.277
7 Samuele BUTTARELLI TP Formula 1:43.440
8 Sergei AFANASIEV Dams 1:43.486
9 Bruno MENDEZ Campos Racing 1:43.514
10 Adrien TAMBAY Gravity - Charouz Dams 1:43.559
11 Giovanni VENTURINI Griffitz Durango 1:43.844
12 Pasquale DI SABATINO TP Formula 1:44.198
13 Marco BARBA Campos Racing 1:44.431
14 Giuseppe CIPRIANI Griffitz Durango 1:45.615
15 Francesco DRACONE Emmebi Motorsport 1:46.910

Rio Haryanto:

"Being on pole at my third race in Auto GP is a great feeling, I knew that I was improving but being already on a par with the best drivers here is amazing. I want to say thanks to the team for giving me such a great car, I will give my best to clinch a great result tomorrow".

Luca Filippi:

"First row is ok, even if obviously pole would have been better. Anyway Rio was staggering, I gave my best but it wasn't enough. I had the chance to improve a bit, but it would have been a tenth, not more, so we would have been very close anyway".

Kevin Ceccon:

"I'm not really happy because I had the pace to get pole. I did some little mistakes, one in particular missing the apex at the last corner when my split times were more than one tenth quicker than Haryanto's lap. Anyway second row is good, and tomorrow there will be the time to improve my position".

All pictures Auto GP.

Rio Haryanto.



Luca Filippi.



Kevin Ceccon.



Fabrizio Crestani.



Jon Lancaster.



Fabio Onidi.



Samuele Buttarelli.



Sergei Afanasiev.



Bruno Mendez.