Macau GP: Edoardo Mortara qualifying 2 report

MORTARA ON POLE FOR MACAU QUALIFICATION RACE

MACAU (CHN) 20 NOVEMBER 2010: Signature-Volkswagen's Edoardo Mortara continued his impressive pace this morning, topping the time sheets in Qualifying 2, which had been delayed from the day before. Taking the aggregate time from this and Thursday's first qualifying session, the 23-year-old will start this afternoon's Qualification Race from pole position ahead of Prema Powerteam's Valtteri Bottas.

Mortara, who being in the 'number one' car has the advantage of the first pitbox, exited the pitlane ahead of his competitors and immediately set the quickest times in clean air. However, a crash by Adderly Fong brought out the red flags. They were out again six minutes after the restart when Yuji Kunimoto spun in the Solitude Esses. When the session resumed again, Signature team-mate Laurens Vanthoor went half a second quicker with a 2:11.594. However, the following lap, Mortara trumped this with a 2:11.165.

Several accidents in the proceeding laps involving Will Buller, Jean-Eric Verge and Antonio Felix da Costa hampered the times of all the leading drivers. However, in the final seconds of qualifying Valtteri Bottas, who had been quickest in both practice sessions and looks to be Mortara's closest rival this year, leapt from fifth in the time sheets to second, with a lap 0.218 seconds behind Mortara's pole. The Finn had brushed the wall and suffered a puncture earlier in the session, and was therefore relieved with the result.

Qualifying 2 pos: 1 / Fastest lap: 2:11.165 Qualifying 1 pos: 1 / Fastest lap: 2:13.068 Free practice 2 pos: 2 / Fastest lap: 2:11.694 (+0.614) Free practice 1 pos: 2 / Fastest lap: 2:14.588 (+0.010)

EDOARDO MORTARA: "It feels great to have pole position in Macau finally, having missed out both times in the past. I had to push very hard because we were struggling with the car in the mountain section, which is where we're usually very fast, so we'll have to look at this. I'm feeling confident, but it's not Sunday yet, we still have to get through the Qualifying Race today. Winning from pole isn't easy because the guys behind can get a tow and try and pass before the first corner. But I'm excited about it, it's going to be fun."

-source: Edoardo Mortara