Adrian Quaife-Hobbs will start from pole tomorrow in the first race of the Auto GP Valencia weekend. After clinching pole in Monza, the young Brit did the same on the Spanish track after a session that saw him post the fastest lap a first time after 10 minutes and then improve it twice up to a 1'23"480 that nobody could beat. Sergey Sirotkin tried as hard as he could and even managed to post the quickest first sector with two minutes to go, but he stopped the clock on a 1'23"681 that was two tenths shy of pole.

If the first row of Race 1 will be the exact replica of what we saw on the Monza grid, behind the leading duo things are different: to complete a very good showing by SuperNova International Victor Guerin posted the 3rd time, just 0.04 quicker than Facu Regalia, who was 4th with the best placed Campos Racing entry.

In a very tight packed field championship leader Pål Varhaug was 5th with a 1'24"107 that is just 0.06 far from third place, and will share third row of the grid with Max Snegirev: the Russian driver of Campos Racing posted the quickest first sector overall with 4 minutes to go, but then wasted his lap going in the gravel at the last turn, then heading for the pits. Sergio Campana, still hampered by heavy oversteer, closed the session in P7 ahead of Chris Van der Drift, who still had to face the same braking issues he had in FP2.

Italian youngster Antonio Spavone was again in the top ten with P9 (1'24"674), ahead of Daniel de Jong who was stopped at half session by a driveshaft failure. Yann Cunha was the fastest among the newcomers with 11th place, ahead of Giuseppe Cipriani, Giancarlo Serenelli and Matteo Beretta.

Adrian Quaife-Hobbs:

"Two poles on two attempts sounds really good, but I have to say thanks to the team because we really had a good car. We were quick straight out of the box in yesterday's testing, and in the first practice today we ran on very used tyres, just bedding the pads. In FP2 I was up to the pace again, and I was really confident looking to Qualifying. Anyway nothing was granted because we had never tried the new-spec soft tyres before and therefore we had to do some guessing. The result shows that the engineers got it right, so we can be really happy about our job. Pole is a good start, but tomorrow's race will be interesting, if the track keeps being so hot we will have to manage the tyres well to avoid any surprise".

Sergey Sirotkin:

"I'm a bit disappointed because I was aiming for pole, but P2 is still ok, starting from the front row still gives me good chances for the first corner. I was quick, but somehow I didn't manage to put the perfect lap together: especially at the end of the session I had the best first sector, but then the second wasn't special, and despit improving my best in S3 I was still behind".

Victor Guerin:

"I'm happy about my third place, even if I believe it could have been better if I wasn't stopped twice by traffic. Slower drivers closed the door right in front of me twice, forcing me to go very hard on the brakes and wasting tyres and quick laps. Anyway Adrian was quicker today, compared to him I must still improve a bit in S1 and S3".

Valencia, Qualifying, 30 March 2012

1 Adrian QUAIFE-HOBBS Super Nova International 1:23.480
2 Sergey SIROTKIN Euronova Racing 1:23.681
3 Victor GUERIN Super Nova International 1:24.057
4 Facu REGALIA Campos Racing 1:24.091
5 Pal VARHAUG Virtuosi UK 1:24.107
6 Max SNEGIREV Campos Racing 1:24.228
7 Sergio CAMPANA MLR 71 1:24.362
8 Chris VAN DER DRIFT Manor MP Motorsport 1:24.579
9 Antonio SPAVONE Euronova Racing 1:24.674
10 Daniel DE JONG Manor MP Motorsport 1:24.795
11 Yann CUNHA Ombra Racing 1:25.021
12 Giuseppe CIPRIANI Campos Racing 1:25.022
13 Giancarlo SERENELLI Ombra Racing 1:25.115
14 Matteo BERETTA Zele Racing 1:25.247
15 Sten PENTUS Virtuosi UK 1:25.675
16 Michele LA ROSA MLR 71 1:27.903
17 Peter MILAVEC Zele Racing 1:29.725

All Photos Auto GP.

Adrian Quaife-Hobbs..



Sergey Sirotkin.



Victor Guerin.



Facundo Regalia.



Pål Varhaug.



Max Snegirev.



Sergio Campana.



Chris Van der Drift.



Antonio Spavone.



Daniel De Jong.