Formula Two news
Wickens on first F2 pole position
29 May 2009 / Results / PhotosCanadian Robert Wickens has claimed the first pole position on the return of the Formula Two championship. The 20-year-old pipped Germany's Tobias Hegewald by just fourteen thousands of a second in Valencia as local favourite Andy Soucek and Brazil's Carlos Iaconelli completed the top four. Henry Surtees will lead the charge for British honours from tenth on the grid in Saturday's first race.
"It's definitely an honour to take the first pole position in Formula Two," said Wickens. "All through testing and practice I've been relatively quick so it's nice to say I got the first pole of the year, but it's the first race of a long season so I've just got to get my head down and focus on the rest of the weekend."
Tobias Hegewald came extremely close to grabbing pole, but had to settle for second on the grid after setting his fastest time on his first flying lap: "I did quite a good lap on my first set of tyres," commented the German, "unfortunately it was 14 thousandths too slow for pole!"
Andy Soucek was just over a tenth behind in third, with the Spaniard admitting to being too conservative during his quickest lap: "I thought I would be faster on my second set of new tyres," noted Soucek. "In the end I just tried to do my best and it was not enough, so well done to these guys. I'm hoping to get a good result for my home fans - obviously starting from third is not the best, but I can still win the race."
Soucek's late lap pushed Brazilian Carlos Iaconelli down to fourth after he'd found himself in the top three for most of the session. Russian Mikhail Aleshin was fifth and Julien Jousse enjoyed his best session of the weekend so far - he will start tomorrow's season opener from sixth. Aleshin and Jousse set an identical time around the 2.5 mile circuit.
Edoardo Piscopo, who had recorded the fastest lap in final practice earlier today, and Milos Pavlovic were seventh and eighth respectively. 2009 will be the first full season of racing for 18-year-old Lithaunian Kazim Vasiliauskas and he impressed by taking ninth place, whilst Henry Surtees rounded out the top ten.
The whole field was evenly matched, with less than a second covering the top 15 drivers. There were a few incidents during the session, most notably when Jack Clarke went off on the run down to turn twelve - ending a promising start to qualifying for the young Briton.
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