Fabio Leimer tamed the wet and windy conditions at Silverstone to take pole position for Saturday's GP2 race.
Swiss driver dominates in testing conditions
Fabio Leimer tamed the wet and windy conditions at Silverstone to take pole position for Saturday's GP2 race.
Conditions were treacherous on track, and some drivers even question the wisdom of the session taking place during the lunch break.
However, when the lights went green at 4pm, all the cars took to the track and it was championship leader Davide Valsecchi who made the early running.
By the second run it was clear that the drivers were starting to find their feet on the wet track as everyone improved on their times, with Esteban Gutierrez, Leimer and Valsecchi exchanging the top spot.
With 20 minutes remaining in the session Leimer surged clear of the pack, lapping over a second quicker than anyone else, and proceeded to take a further two seconds off that time by the half way point of the session.
The red flag came out with 10 minutes remaining after Addax's Johnny Cecotto and I-Sport's Marcus Ericsson ground to a halt on track
When the session got underway again, no-one bettered Leimer's time, but a recovering Cecotto cut his advantage from over two seconds to nine tenths as he went second and Britain's Jolyon Palmer was able to climb up to third.
Both DAMS driver, Valsecchi and Felipe Nasr stopped on track before the session ended after running out of fuel and both were excluded from the qualifying as were Ericsson and Stefano Coletti.
GP2 Qualifying Silverstone
1. Fabio Leimer - Racing Engineering - 2:01.889
2. Johnny Cecotto - Addax - +0.915
3. Jolyon Palmer - I-Sport International - +0.983
4. Stefano Coletti - Coloni - +1.115
5. Esteban Gutierrez - Lotus - +1.369
6. James Calado - Lotus - +1.385
7. Rio Haryanto - Carlin - +1.509*
8. Max Chilton - Carlin - +1.534
*Five place grid drop carried over from Valencia
