Formula Two news

Soucek on pole at Oschersleben

Championship leader Andy Soucek has placed himself in the best position to consolidate his advantage by qualifying comfortably on pole position for the first German round of the championship at Oschersleben. The Spaniard will line-up alongside Mirko Bortolotti on the front row with Rob Wickens third.

Mikhail Aleshin set the early pace, but Soucek hit the top inside the opening ten minutes. Robert Wickens then began to trade blows with Soucek for pole, but the Spaniard had the final say - setting a scintillating 1:20.402 lap time.

With four minutes of the session remaining, Italian Mirko Bortolotti inched out Robert Wickens for second by just 0.005. Wickens could not respond as he had already used his prime set of tyres when an unfortunate red flag was thrown in the final ten minutes.

Julien Jousse improved late on to take fourth, ahead of Miloš Pavlovic. Kazim Vasiliauskas continues to produce impressive form during his debut season of single seater racing - the Lithuanian rounded out the top six.

Home favourite Tobias Hegewald had to settle for seventh, whilst Carlos Iaconelli set the eighth fastest time. Alex Brundle made a welcome return to the top ten as he pipped a slightly disappointed Mikhail Aleshin, who dropped to tenth place following a late flurry of improvements.

Sebastian Hohenthal and Natacha Gachnang both set a time of 1:21.498 but it was the Swede Hohenthal who was rewarded with 11th having completed his lap before the Swiss female Finnish racer.

The earlier noted red flag was caused when Jason Moore went off between Turn 12 and Turn 13 with eight minutes remaining - the Englishman made light contact with the barriers but his car was stranded close to the circuit. Several drivers were on flying laps at this point but all had to boycot their efforts.

German Sanchez ended his session in the gravel at turn ten, whilst Pietro Gandolfi recovered from an off at Turn 13.

The second qualifying session at Oschersleben will begin at 9:30am local time on Saturday ahead of the weekend's first race at 14:15 (BST +1 / GMT+2).

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